Left 4 Dead: Hell's Hour
by LionheartV2
Summary: The city of Fairfield has been plunged into chaos. Follow the plight of 4 other survivors as they weave in and out of one another's path while trying to escape the infected city. Runs concurrently with L4D: Origins, by Lardcake212. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1: The Calm Before the Storm

Author's Note:

Hello to all fanfic readers out there, and a warm welcome to the story of 4 other characters trying to survive in the zombie infested world of Left 4 Dead. This is the second fanfic I've written, so hopefully it's much better than my first in terms of sentence structure.

Also, this story is running concurrently with L4D: Origins, written by the awesome Lardcake212. Reading his fic really motivated me to start writing my own, and what better way to honour that than to place the characters in the same world as his characters. To put it simply, the characters in this story exist in the same world as the characters from Lardcake212's story. His story is still on-going, which would indefinitely lead some possible timeline errors in future chapters. I hope that readers would be understanding and not make a big fuss about it. I had already gotten permission from him to use/reference his work in here long before I even finished the first chapter. His story can be found in the following link: (you'll have to add in the full address, as for some reason, it's not being displayed even when I write it down here)

/s/4960899/1/L4D_Origins

I'll leave the introductions at that, as most of it is under my profile data, and proceed straight to disclaimers.

DISCLAIMERS: I do not own L4D, its world of infected, normals and specials alike, or any other concept that originated from Valve. I DO, however, own the four original characters that have been created for this story.

A big thanks goes out to a few of my best friends, Alwin, Jason, and Nicole, all of whom have been a real help from the time I met them to the time I began fighting zombies with them in L4D. This fic is dedicated to our neverending war against the undead!

* * *

Profile Data

Location: Fairfield, Pennsylvania

Population Estimate: 1,045,298 as of 18th November 2008

Fairfield, there is no other city as populated or urbanized as this. Ideals and beliefs come and go like the wind. People die, babies are born. Milestones are achieved, while failures abound. The mosaic colours of our soul is rapidly degrading into a gray monochrome, as we struggle to meet the next deadline, to outsmart our rivals, to climb up the endless corporate ladder. Perhaps this was a reminder from those high above, that there is more to life than the maddening pace of society, meaningless results printed on tests which were based on biased ideals. To enforce permanent change, sacrifices are inevitable. God flooded this world once to cleanse it of its filth, and now He has come to flood this world once again, with a force more frightening than mere floodwaters.

_Super Rabies_, as the doctors called it. Understanding its effect is simple- like rabies, it causes the host to brutally attack and kill anything in its sight, and because the human body demands constant nutrition, infected hosts would usually consume anything they can find, even corpses. The virus kills off several control cells and nerves in the body, such as pigmentation hormones and pain receptors, thus giving the host a zombie-like appearance- gray, wrinkling skin. An infected host does not feel any pain, so you can shoot one a dozen times and as long as you do not hit any of the major structures, such as the heart, brain, and spinal cord, it will not die. Should an infected host be devoid of nutrition over a long period of time, it will break down the protein stores in the body just like a normal human body would, leading to organ failures and ultimately, death. Unlike your normal 'zombies', these 'infected' (or zombies, if you feel more comfortable using that word) can survive for a long time given appropriate nutrition, and can run at a speed you never thought possible. Furthermore, unlike the normal rabies, people infected by Super Rabies do not die from the disease itself, something which has baffled doctors till this date.

The virus can take days to manifest itself, up to a week, but in China where the first cases occurred, there were reports that uninfected people turned almost immediately. During the time that the host has not yet turned, should the host do so much as sneeze or cough, he/she would have spread the virus to some twenty other people in the same room. Symptoms of the virus begin with days of unexplained headaches and coughing fits, followed by a high fever. Despite the fever going higher than 40 degrees Celsius, a patient would feel extremely cold, shivering involuntarily. It is at this point that the virus proceeds to enter the brain, damaging the regions that control speech and memory, causing the patient to fall into a deep slumber. When the patient awakes a few hours later, the virus would have completely dominated the brain, rendering the patient incapable of logical thinking and reverting him/her to an animal-like state.

But perhaps there is a bright side after all. Every 1 in 1000 people have a natural immunity to the virus, meaning that the virus is unable to express itself in the host due to specific genetic structures in the host's chromosomes, and remains dormant in the body. These people are not as contagious as those not immune to the virus, although they can still spread the virus via blood contamination through needles, surface wounds, or swallowing. Maybe, just maybe, these are the ones whom He has deemed pure enough to nurture the next generation of the human race, the ones who will board Noah's Ark.

That is, provided they don't get devoured by the rest.

It is one test after another. You can survive the initial outbreaks, but get infected later on. You can be immune to the virus, but be killed by the rest who are infected. You can be immune and survive the onslaught of attacks, but by some freak force of nature, get killed by other survivors desperate for supplies.

As of now, the entire continent of Asia has been placed in quarantine, and all communications had been cut off from them. Asia was now in darkness, left alone to drown in their own suffering and chaos while the rest of the world watched and prayed.

But the worse has yet to come. Already, similar cases have been reported in the outskirts of America. The authorities assured the general public that with all their state-of-the-art medical technology, the virus would have no chance of penetrating into the heart of America. Meaningless words from meaningless politicians. By the time the government gathered the courage to face the public with this false gesture of hope, the virus had already extended its wings over the entire nation.

The beginning of the end has already begun.

City Status: _Infected_

**Chapter 1: The Calm Before the Storm  
**

**Hell's Hour – 6 days, 11:23PM**

The humming of the electric microscope drifted through the air of the laboratory. Racks of test-tubes decorated the long rectangular table in the middle, each filled with a different coloured liquid, along with centrifuge machines and bottles of reagents. Stacks of paper were strewn haphazardly in front of a computer on one side of the room, and several cupboards were still left open despite the obvious safety precautions.

A young man turned his gaze away from the computer screen, rubbing his eyes and letting out a huge sigh of annoyance. He stood up and stretched himself, revealing his tall figure and muscular build. He ran a hand through his hair and stared into his reflection off the cupboard glass doors. True enough, his constant lab work had torn him away from his regular exercise, making him look less buff than he used to be. This man believed that achieving balance between physical and mental health contributes to work efficiency, perfection, and the girls. Just then, the door opened and a young woman stepped in, the ends of her lab coat fluttering about her legs.

She stood in front of the doorway, exchanging looks with the man at the table. "Dr. Chen, it's well beyond office hours, you should go home and get some rest."

"I'm fully aware of that, Susan. Don't worry, I'll leave soon." The man replied softly, turning back to the mess of papers on his desk. Normally, he would have freaked out at the sight of such a messy place, but now he was just too damn tired to give a shit.

Susan folded her arms and smiled. "I know a lie when I hear one. Come on Ashton, just because you want to be the first to make the discovery doesn't mean you have to suffer insomnia for that. How will you focus if you're too damn tired to know that your shoelaces are untied?"

Ashton snuck a glance downwards. Indeed, his shoelaces were dangling loosely. He let out a grunt before turning to the pile of papers on his desk. "I'll leave soon ok? Promise."

Susan smacked her forehead with her palm. "Well, I guess that means you won't be leaving anytime 'soon'." She walked across the room and sat down beside Ashton. "Since I can't talk you into going, mind if I question your progress to kill some time?"

Ashton turned to face Susan, momentarily admiring her beautiful face before focusing his thoughts back to the matter at hand. "So far, in every specimen, the result has been pretty much the same- the viral cells dominate the other cells, but it doesn't express itself at all. I've tried all kinds of mediums- muscle cells, skin cells, hair, bone, blood- and there wasn't any difference. What I found weird is that, as I mentioned, the virus does not express itself when it infects other cells, compared to normal viral cells that exhibit some sort of symptom in the host, allowing the host to identify that he has an infection."

"Something like HIV?" Susan asked.

"Yeah, something like that," Ashton continued. "Except this sucker doesn't die as quickly when exposed to normal air. I've left it in a contained pure nitrogen environment, and it survived for a few minutes before dying, which means that if another host is within close proximity, the virus can spread through the air and infect the other host, and THAT, my dear Susan, is what's freaking me out like hell."

"You're not thinking what I think you're thinking are you...?"

There was a brief silence between the two scientists. "I took these samples from a few people who complained of fever, claiming they suffered bite wounds from stray animals here in Fairfield, and that their current medication wasn't working." Ashton took a deep breath before continuing. "If we add up the main disease arising from animal bites to the similarities with HIV, we could have something big here. There's only one type of cell that I have not tried exposing it to."

Susan did not have to wait for an answer. "Brain cells."

"Correct, since it's so damn hard to obtain fresh samples of brain cells. But thinking about it now, I'm afraid of even trying. Who knows what kind of results I'll get."

"Well, if it's negative, you can sleep soundly at night. But if it's positive, then you've got some kind of...of," Susan waved her hands around, trying to come up with a name. "super rabies-HIV kind of virus?"

"More like super rabies, given that the origin was the animal bites." Ashton corrected. "With something of this magnitude, hell, even government assurance won't cut it."

Half an hour later, Ashton and Susan were walking down the deserted hallway of Mercy Hospital. Most biomedical researchers usually carry out their work in privately located laboratories, but just yesterday, Ashton, along with several of his colleagues, were assigned to research on this new strain of virus recently obtained, and in order to carry out proper research, they were relocated to the higher floors of Mercy Hospital.

"You think the big shots will accept my theory?" Ashton asked, stepping into the elevator after Susan.

"Depends, provided the other biomeds don't get to them before you do. Although, after hearing your theory, I'm starting to be scared. Rabies in humans is fatal, but the number of possible cases we have had in two days equals the number of confirmed cases of Rabies over the past two centuries! If this virus can spread easily through the air, we're talking major quarantine measures here." There was an obvious tone of unrest in her voice.

"I don't think they'll jump to conclusions just yet, there are still too many unanswered questions."

Susan pressed the ground floor button, and as soft thrumming of the elevator filled the small compartment, thoughts of his work over the past two days started to flood his mind. He was so confident that he could find the answers, to be the first one to decipher the viral code. Brimming with confidence, he had entered the lab and soon became engrossed in his work, forgetting about lunch time or toilet breaks. It was not long before he experienced failures. Already, the effect of multiple dead ends began to take its toll on Ashton's mental health. He was not one who could take failures lightly, despite all his colleagues telling him bullshit like 'through failures, you can learn your mistakes'. To Ashton, failure means possessing an insufficient amount of the knowledge required, and given his field of study, knowledge was even more important than the air he breathed.

Maybe it was just the way Ashton was raised. The younger of two brothers, his family was what others would call, high-flyers- his father was a top notch lawyer, his mother a world-class surgeon, and his elder brother a navy captain. Failure was not an option to anyone of his bloodline, something that Ashton respected greatly. Throughout his studies, being in first was the only thing that mattered to him, and he consistently secured top grades at his school. It was all done legitimately of course- a Chen would never resort to dirty methods to win, an invaluable lesson taught from the wisdom of his father.

Right now, Ashton shuddered at the thought of having to face his family and tell them that he failed to perform. Failed, the one word they despised. He quickly dismissed the thought. No matter what, he would persist. Perhaps there was some meaning to the saying after all, that through failures, a person like Ashton would derive great motivation from it, breaking the boundaries of modern science.

_Hah, maybe not that far. Yet._

Cold night air rushed to greet them as they stepped out of the hospital entrance. They were standing in front of the drop off point which connected to the main road, exiting towards the left and to their right around the corner. A small, dilapidated bus-stop sat at the corner of the road. Ahead of them, across a small artificial grass patch, stood the name of the hospital in all its glory, framed by dark coloured marble, facing the row of seemingly impenetrable buildings opposite the road. Susan's car was parked on the left, in the enlarged part of the drop off lane for ambulances to stop.

"Need a lift back?" Susan asked, turning to Ashton.

"Sure, thanks."

She inserted the key and turned. The car let out a loud blaring siren, almost making Ashton's heart jump right out of his chest. The alarm sounded two times louder in the quiet atmosphere, echoing down the streets.

"What the fuck!" Susan cursed as she frantically pressed the button on her key. The alarm died down as soon as it started. She looked up at Ashton, face red with embarrassment. "Sorry! I thought I already disabled the alarm."

Ashton could hear the faint sounds of dogs barking and cats screeching in the distance, and swore he could hear the scuffling of tiny feet on the pavement.

"Heh, no worries. The adrenaline rush was good though." Ashton joked as Susan got into the driver's seat.

There was a flicker of movement on the road exit directly in front of them. Ashton peered into the darkness ahead. A dog, no, _three_ dogs, had come into his view, their nails making light tapping sounds on the gravel. Upon noticing (and possibly smelling) Ashton, they stopped and looked up, and began growling deeply in their throats, snarling and baring their teeth which reflected brightly in the dim moonlight.

"Holy... Get in Ashton, I wanna get the fuck out of here." Susan beckoned. She started the engine and switched on the headlights. It shone straight into the dogs, revealing their bodies which Ashton could not clearly see before. But as soon as he took in the details, something in his stomach churned wildly, and he could taste something bitter at the back of his throat.

Most of the dogs' fur had fallen off, revealing bare patches of skin with several big, dark-coloured spots. They began barking furiously at the source of the lights, spitting saliva from their gaping mouths. Their eyes were bloodshot, depicting the rage contained in these once faithful and loyal animals.

Suddenly, the dogs took off sprinting towards Ashton. He snapped out of his shock and jumped into the passenger seat, slamming the door closed just as the first of the dog threw itself onto it. It clawed and barked into the window, its red eyes fixated on the two humans inside, as the other two dogs did the same on the other side of the car.

"What the fuck?! Was Rabies ever this extreme!" yelled Ashton, his voice barely audible over the barking.

"I don't know!" Susan shouted back as she slammed her foot on the accelerator. The car sped off down the road at an alarming speed. Ashton peered over his shoulder, listening to the sounds of barking grow softer and softer till the only thing he could hear was his own heart thumping. Despite the short encounter, Ashton was sweating profusely while Susan had a death grip on the steering wheel almost as if she was clinging onto it for dear life. When it was certain they were safe, Ashton slumped into his seat and covered his face with his hands.

Never again will he roam the streets at night.

**Hell's Hour – 4 days, 1:48PM**

"Whew, that's the last thread." Nicole stretched her slender legs outward and yawned. Since there was still time before the meeting, she might as well take it easy and enjoy some of her homemade recipes. She rose from her chair and drew the curtains, letting the afternoon sunlight flood the small room, bathing her in a warm, refreshing feeling.

A grade book with the name 'NICOLE MILANDERS FOX' printed on the cover in bold lay beside her sewing tools. Her room was neatly organized to suit her needs- she, being a believer in _Feng Shui_, the Chinese art of organizing furniture to maximize positive energy flow, had moved her desk against one of the side walls so that her back would not be facing the door. A small bed sat against the corner at the end of the room, and next to it, Nicole's most prized possession, a fully automatic sewing machine. Sewing was, perhaps, her most favourite hobby among many others. In fact, she not only stitched torn clothing, she would come up with original designs on paper and through trial and error, bring the fabric to real life. She would then wear said clothing out, earning much laughter and admiration from her friends in college, and the occasional meeting with the discipline master.

Nicole was known as the beacon of light among her close friends. No matter what problem they faced, Nicole never failed to offer her help through words of encouragement. Whether it was after being dumped, or fretting about the next day's test, her friends always found solace and motivation in her words. She was, and will always be, an optimist. Childhood experiences had brought her up in such a way that it would hurt her even more to see someone close to her suffer at the hands of fate.

Thinking of people close to her made her thoughts drift to her family in Riverside. She wondered what they were doing right now, how much they missed her and vice versa. Staying in Fairfield while the rest of her family moved was a hard decision, but her parents understood the reason and supported her. Education standards in Fairfield were undoubtedly higher than that in Riverside, and Nicole had already secured a spot in the local university. Along with the amount of money spent on tuition fees, Nicole was determined not to let her parents down.

She strolled down the hallway of the girls' dorm and soon reached the communal kitchen. For such a prestigious university, one would think that the kitchen would be a little bit more luxurious, but Nicole didn't complain, for she was contented with whatever she had. There was nobody else in there save for a girl. She had her back facing Nicole as she stepped in. Her hair was tied back into a small ponytail, making her instantly recognizable by Nicole.

"Hey Zoey, not at the library as usual?" Nicole called out loudly.

Zoey gave a small yelp of surprise and dropped the tomato she was holding. She turned back to a laughing Nicole. "Geez, Nicole, don't scare me like that. Not good for my asthma you know..."

Nicole couldn't stop giggling as she opened the refrigerator and began taking out her required ingredients. "Sorry, didn't know you were that easily frightened. And you still haven't answered my question."

"You want me to go out there with all the crazy animals running about? Uh-uh, I'm staying right here as much as I can." Zoey said, proceeding on with her sandwich making.

_Yet another victim to fear,_ Nicole thought, staring at Zoey from behind the fridge door.

She was not spared from it herself. Nowadays more and more student preferred to lock themselves in their own rooms, surfing Facebook and watching meaningless television throughout the entire day. Walking down to the kitchen earlier, Nicole could hear sounds coming from every room, telling her that practically nobody had left the dorm since morning, which was unnatural at this time of the day.

Nicole continued to make her lunch, choosing to disregard whatever happening outside the safe walls of her dormitory. Zoey noticed Nicole's tense face, and, afraid that she might have spoke faster than she could think earlier, decided to break the ice by asking what sort of lunch Nicole was making.

"Oh this? My very own special- cereal with milk and jelly beans, topped with a generous serving of peanut butter! I call it the 'Sweet Disaster'."

"Um, maybe I shouldn't have asked..." Zoey gulped, suddenly imagining that her sandwich was nothing but a pile of messy slime.

"Wanna try some?"

Nicole held the bowl up to Zoey's nose, inducing her to swallow her saliva. "Ah, haha, no thanks, I'm all set. See ya around!" Zoey laughed nervously, before grabbing her plate and practically running out of the kitchen.

_Man, why doesn't anyone appreciate my attempts to be cheerful in this era of animal fury._

Even if she was the beacon of light for her friends, how long will a beacon remain lit without the help of a technician to maintain it? She could be the shining light for her friends, but who will be her shining light?

Two hours later, Nicole sat against the wall in her friend's dorm room. They were discussing their budget for a project to construct an environmental friendly garbage compactor, but none of their words registered to Nicole as she sat staring out onto the streets of Fairfield, her mind drifting off into deep thought. Her friends noticed Nicole's blank expression, and suggested they head out for an ice-cream break.

There were a few people walking along by the roadside, but now and then they would throw a glance over their shoulder or into the alleyways as they passed, looking out for any stray animals. Nicole and her friends stood outside the nearby ice-cream parlour.

"Vanilla, single scoop please." Nicole recited. As she reached for the cone, a sudden loud metallic thud frightened her and she dropped the cone onto the floor. Her friends had let out a brief scream (which also caused the ice cream vendor to scream). They all turned to the origin of the sound- an alleyway right next to the parlour. From the shadow of the building came a small cat. Quick observation told Nicole that it wasn't one that would attack people for no reason- its fur was neat and it showed no signs of rabies.

One of Nicole's friends let out a sigh of relief and approached the cat. "Aww, cute little thing must've knocked over a trash can." The cat eyed her as she approached it.

"Mary, Mary wait." Nicole reached forward and held her friend back.

And just in time too. The cat suddenly started hissing loudly at the sight of Mary coming closer. It arched its back upwards and raised its tail while baring her teeth and sharp nails. Its green eyes had turned a deep red as it continued to snarl at them. Then, it suddenly turned and ran back into the alley where it came from.

All of them were too shocked to say anything, momentarily rooted at the spot at the sight of a seemingly docile animal suddenly turning mad. Nicole continued staring at the entrance of the alley, trying to convince herself that what just happened, had just happened.

Just then, it started to rain.

**Hell's Hour – 4 days, 5:14PM**

Beads of sweat trickled down a tanned, well-defined face, resembling raindrops falling as it dripped down to the floor in small droplets. The light from the ceiling spotlights reflected off the moisture on his skin, showing off his lean, muscular built. His body was slightly arched forward, adrenaline in his blood preparing him to leap off at the slightest signal. His muscles tensed, his trusted weapon gripped firmly in his right hand, his vision narrowing down to the target in front of him. Everything seemed to move in slow-motion, the shuffling of people among the crowd, the spinning of the fan's rotor blades, and the movement of his opponent's chest as he too, took deep breathes. This was it. All his months of training completed for the sole purpose of getting past this very moment. He couldn't afford to be distracted by his surroundings, not even the slightest. This was all that mattered. If he lost this, then it's game over for him and all his hard work.

With one final breath, Johan stretched out his arms and delivered a faked soft serve over the net. His opponent, Colin Wokshire of the University of London, anticipated this commonly-used tactic, and sprung forward to reflect the shuttlecock back towards the far end of Johan's court. Johan countered with a backhanded swing, causing Colin to stretch across to his right to prevent it from touching the floor. The mind games went on for a good five minutes, and both players started to feel the agony in their legs. It was then Colin saw his chance and delivered the famous drop-shot straight towards Johan's legs, a hit that seemed almost invincible to the eye, let alone be deflected. The next Colin knew, the shuttlecock hovered over his head before dropping down to the ground right behind him, right at the edges of the court.

Shouts of joy erupted from the crowd behind Johan as he wiped the sweat of his brow, heaving a huge sigh. Both players approached each other and shook hands under the netting.

"Man, how did you manage to reflect that last hit?" Colin asked, still unable to believe that Johan could spot such a fast hit.

"Well, it may sound like bragging, but I kinda gave you a high one to trick you into doing a drop-shot. The more tired a player is, the more he'll seize an opportunity to finish off the opponent. So I just...did a drop-shot counter." Johan replied. "Good game though, you gave me a run for my money."

Being the humble person he was, Johan did not like seeking pleasure in tormenting his opponents. Just the other time, he had a winning streak in a game of Big 2 with his classmates, and out of curiosity, he decided to fake defeat to see what the outcome would be. As expected, his classmates were savoring their sweet victory, laughing at the top of their voices and apparently forgetting that Johan was still sitting there, smiling to himself. It was so easy for a person to suddenly become oblivious to the emotions of others around him, something which Johan simple accepted with a pinch of salt.

After all, what goes around comes around. Even though it may seem to an average person a mere superstition, Johan firmly believed such sayings had deeper meanings. He wasn't the sort who would easily dismiss anything as gibberish without sound reasoning. He would always say to himself 'Everything happens for a reason', to the point that his friends and colleagues could already anticipate when his infamous statement would flow out of his mouth.

This was the sort of person Johan Ho C. Howard was. At 21 years old, he had moved to Fairfield a year ago to pursue further studies in Fairfield University, aiming at a degree in computer engineering. Born in New Zealand, the transition to a heavily urbanised area such as Fairfield wasn't as easy as he thought.

Johan felt a firm pat on his back. Patrick Klonders, his coach, was beaming down at him, valiantly trying to control his happiness that was leaking out of his facial expression.

"Nicely done, Johan. You've brought the gold medal back to our school, ten years since our last one. You should be proud!"

"Of course I am, Coach! That's why you put me through hell didn't you?" Johan joked. "Besides, there was quite a bit of luck and advantage on my side. I could clearly tell Colin wasn't at his maximum form."

Johan stole a quick glance back to Colin, who was sitting at one of the side benches. Johan had noticed before the start of the match that Colin appeared to be slightly paler than when they were introduced a week ago, and now he was coughing profusely, comforted by his friends and coach.

"Well, at least he still played. Nothing's worse than withdrawing from a match you've trained so much for." Patrick replied, following Johan's glance to the sick-looking Colin.

_Hmph, so much for fate._

Johan shook the thought out of his head. "So Coach, are you going for the party?"

The Interstate Youth Badminton Competition after-party, a time where players from all the participating schools can get together and talk about things other than badminton, as well as get horribly drunk and do something embarrassing, like lifting girls' skirts or running naked down the street. That would be where Johan would have to face a thousand pairs of eyes as he received his award.

"Don't think so. I've been having this weird headache since last Monday, so jumping up and down is a definite no-go from me. And neither is alcohol."

"Bah, what a waste. I was looking forward to introducing the demon that made this possible for me to all the other players!"

The duo laughed heartily. Patrick left Johan to indulge in his milestone victory, coughing as he walked away. Johan's gaze remained fixed on his coach. Something was amiss, a simple headache or cough would have subsided after a day or two, yet people were tortured by it for as long as a week.

Thinking back, the daily newspaper stated that there has been a sudden surge in patients being admitted due to high fever, prolonged coughing fits and severe headaches, symptoms that would otherwise seem minor. Even when walking on the streets, he could notice several people around him coughing or rubbing ointment on their temples. It was also reported that animal attacks were increasingly frequent, causing the authorities to warn the general public to avoid intimidating or approaching wild animals in the streets, and also led to a rise in animal euthanasia. Stray dogs, cats, even the docile monkeys in the surrounding forested area. Johan shuddered at the thought of an epidemic. Readings of the Great Plaque was enough to chill him to the bone, let alone experience one personally.

But despite all this, Johan was still in tip-top shape. Other than his stomach butterflies, no throbbing headaches, irritations of the throat, or anything else for that matter. Johan carried on his everyday life as per normal.

_A stroke of luck this time? Or maybe something more divine in nature. I think I'll stick with the former for now._

There was a pat on his back again. This time, it was hard enough to knock the wind out of his lungs. Johan whirled around, eyes blazing, and found himself staring up at Jason's smiling face.

"Hey man, you were awesome! Whaddaya say we go get a drink to celebrate this occasion!"

Jason T. Fonshire, Johan's good friend since coming to Fairfield. Standing at 6ft5, he easily towered over Johan's 5ft8 frame despite being only a year older than Johan. Jason pursued a career in the police force, graduating at the top of his cohort back at the academy. Fairfield was his first choice of interest, and when asked why he decided to go there, he merely replied that 'the more people there are, the more thrills I get to experience!'. His wish was granted, and he was posted to Fairfield several years ago. Being the youngest yet brightest officer Fairfield ever had, he quickly established good working relationship with his colleagues and boss. Many a times he had been asked to attend work functions and parties, something which Jason found it hard to decline (probably due to the free food). Styled, spiky hair, and a lean muscular build completed the police officer look, making even the regulars look like newcomers to the force.

The pair had met, ironically, during a dispute in a food court. It was late at night, and only a few food stalls were left open. Johan and Jason were eating at separate tables in the quiet food court, when a group of teenage punks made their way into the food court, shouting vulgarities at seeing the limited variety of food stalls left open. Between Johan's and Jason's table, sat a young woman scribbling down notes whilst sipping at her dessert every now and then. To the average man, this woman was indeed rather attractive, dressed in a purple sleeveless shirt under a thin, sky blue jacket, and a dark green skirt to give an interesting overall colour. Her unique trendy fashion was probably why the group of teenagers made their way towards her, intruding onto her privacy as they began harassing her, flirting and making obscene noises, whilst surrounding her to prevent her from running off. One of them even went so far as to run his hands down her legs.

"Hey, s-stop that!"

Jason was already standing in front of the group even before she finished her sentence. "I think you all should just leave her alone." Johan looked up at Jason's words, already anticipating what was going to happen next.

The teenagers, five of them in total, stood up and began challenging him. "Who the fuck do you think you are? Wanna fight?" They then advanced towards Jason like a group of vultures.

"I don't want to cause any tr-" Jason barely finished his sentence when the front-most teenager swung his fist towards Jason. Naturally, Jason simply shifted his body to the side and grabbed the teenager's arm as it soared past his face. Following the momentum, Jason spun around and tossed the teenager aside. As he crashed into a table, another one of them picked up a chair and screamed in anger as he attempted to bring it down onto Jason's head, only to have an elbow ram straight into his face, breaking his nose and sending him staggering into two others. During the struggle, the last of the group crept up behind Jason, wielding a small knife in his hand, ready to plunge it deep into Jason's back, when he felt something hard smash into his head. Jason turned and saw Johan standing over the punk's squirming body with a badminton racket in hand.

"Hey, thanks man."

"No problem, thought you could use some help."

The punks got up and ran staggering out of the food court, accompanied by cheers from the few food stalls' owners. The girl had her face flat on the table, hands firmly clasped behind her head, obviously too scared to do anything else but shield herself.

"Um, excuse me? It's alright now, they're gone" Jason said softly.

At the sudden sound of his voice, the girl yelped and stood up. She quickly looked around, before heaving a sigh of relief.

"Oh-emm-gee, thank you so much for coming to my rescue!" The girl said, smiling and beaming at the pair.

"What's a girl like you doing here so late? Isn't it dangerous at this time?" Jason stated.

The girl's face reddened with embarrassment. "Well, I was desperate for some chocolate marshmallow pudding, and had to finish up my paper, so I guess I lost track of time..."

Something churned inside Johan's stomach. _Chocolate marshmallow pudding?! Where did that come from, Mars?_

"I better walk you back to your home, just to be sure those punks from before don't try anything...illegal. Don't worry, I'm a police officer." Jason took out his ID and showed it to both of them. He then turned to Johan. "Wanna tag along? The more the merrier."

With nothing else to do, and his food all over the floor, Johan nodded, and the trio began walking down the quiet streets of Fairfield. Light from the street lamps provided poor illumination on the road, making the buildings seem like dark, towering monstrosities. Occasionally the sound of a stray dog barking, or laughter from one of the night clubs permeated the air, but other than that, they only had the quiet comfort of the night breeze.

"So what are your names?" Jason asked loudly, causing the other two to jump. "Would be rude of me to merely refer to you both as nameless people."

"N-N-Nicole, Nicole Milanders."

"I'm Johan."

They began talking about everyday things, like current affairs, annoying teenage punks, games like 'Living 4 Death' (much to Nicole's despair). Their laughter floated into the night air, drawing curious stares from the stray animals in the streets. Soon they reached the apartment building where Nicole stayed.

"Thanks officer. See you both soon!" Nicole waved, running up the stairs and slamming the door behind her.

"So desperate to get rid of us, eh..." Jason said sarcastically. "Well, what about you?"

"I live couple of streets down that way. Pergson road."

"Well, I'll be damned. I live in the same street as you, how coincidental is that!" Jason exclaimed as he swung his arm around Johan's neck, nearly choking him.

After that incident, the two of them regularly bumped into each other at that same food court- apparently both had a strange craving for the Asian food stall. They did not see Nicole at the food court anymore (probably because of her traumatic experience). As their meetings became more frequent, it was revealed that staying in the same street was not the only thing they both had in common- badminton, and an interest in small firearms were just some of the interests they both shared. Soon, their friendship had developed deeply, and they were often seen at the firing range, challenging each other to score attacks, much to the humour of Jason's colleagues.

"I've told you a million times- I do not drink!" Johan barked.

"You can always just ask the boss for a glass of milk."

"Not funny. Let me just finish up and grab my stuff." Johan grabbed the face mask issued by the school to all students and ran out after Jason.

There was a light drizzle as they stepped out of the massive hall. Further down, the streets were devoid of life and colour, unnerving Johan greatly. A quick glance at his watch told him it was only 6pm. It was unnatural- and seemingly impossible- that the streets of Fairfield would be deserted when the darkness of night had not yet settled. Fairfield was known to foreigners as the city that never sleeps- there will bound to be people wherever you go, 24/7. Delinquents who hated home, drunkards who got retrenched hours ago, prostitutes desperate for some quick cash, you name it.

"Not gonna put on your face mask? You're a police officer, you know. Role-model kind."

"Bah, if that piece of plastic could stop infections so easily, the world would be disease-free by now."

There was some truth to that. "Hey Jason, don't you find it strange that the city's this quiet at this time of the day?"

"It's expected, what with that damn virus rumoured to be sweeping across the globe, and all these animal attacks we have here. If those animal control guys don't do anything soon, it'll only be a matter of time before we'll all be forced to live like turtles." Jason's gaze wandered off as he spoke, obviously pondering something in his mind.

"You mean, like hermit crabs...?"

"WHAT-ever."

It was a cold joke, but nevertheless, anything that could even lift the mood by one bit was much appreciated. Jason was right, even if his analogy was off the top of his head. To be so close yet so far from your neighbours and friends, how long could one man live?

As Johan sipped from his glass of milk, amidst flirtatious strippers and shocked glances from the bartender, listening to Jason's stories of dreaming to jump across buildings like Trinity from The Matrix, he hoped he wouldn't have to answer that question.

* * *

A/N: There you have it, the introductions to the four main characters of L4D: Hell's Hour. Believe it or not, the name of this story is still undergoing finalization- I was so engrossed in writing out the content that I gave zero thought to what the actual title of the story would be. What's a good story without a kickass title?

Once again, a big thanks to Alwin, Jason, and Nicole. As you might already know, I based the names of the 4 characters off of them (my name is Julian Ho), with their permission of course. Special thanks goes out to Alwin and Lardcake212 for proofreading through my chapters before I upload them!

And, as any other author of fanfics would say, PLEASE R&R!!! Chapter 2 is already finished but still undergoing final editing (I have a habit of wanting to finish the next chapter before uploading the one before that, so as to minimise factual errors), so I really need to hear your honest opinions as readers with regards to my writing style, tenses, sentence structures, anything that you can think of!

P.S. I've taken a timeline approach to the style of this story, shifting perspectives everytime so you get to see what's going on in all the characters' heads. If you're still confused as to what those 'Hell's Hour - 6 days' mean, it's read as 'Hell's Hour minus 6 days', AKA '6 days before outbreak'. As the story progresses, the time proceeds towards Hell's Hour itself (which is in chapter 3), and then after that, which would then be 'Hell's Hour + 4 days'.


	2. Chapter 2: Imminent Danger

Author's Note:

More than a week and only 1 review?! Come on now readers, how am I supposed to know if I'm writing well or like crap! Please, if you're reading this fic, even a few simple words of praise, criticism, or pointers would be more than enough for me.

Disclaimer: I do not own any aspects related to Left 4 Dead, only the original characters created in this story.

This chapter is slightly longer than the previous, something which I didn't expect while I was writing it out. If lengthy chapters are too tiring for most of you to read, drop me a review (hinthint), and I'll try to keep future chapters slightly shorter. And as a reminder, this story runs concurrently with L4D: Origins by Lardcake212.

P.S. My friends have already gotten gold on all the survival maps. Nuuuuuuuuuuu, now I can't experience the same fun as they did~~~ _

HappyStick: Thank you so much for pointing that out. I've gone back to reedit the error. How in the world did I even overlook such a careless mistake?! O_O

* * *

**Chapter 2: Imminent Danger**

**Hell's Hour – 2 days, 2:31PM**

Johan let out a long sigh as he quickened his pace. It was no longer the streets of Fairfield he was roaming, but the silent, dark passages of a ghost town. Compared to just two days ago, when one could still see people on the streets, now there was practically no one in sight. His footsteps echoed loudly in the silence, causing him to glance around nervously every single time he heard a noise.

_Things are getting from bad to worse, _Johan thought, wondering if this could be the same outbreak ravaging across Asia. It would be a painful truth, but truth was always better than living off false hope.

The award-presentation ceremony had not gone very well either. For one, there were way lesser people than expected. Guest management gave the reason that many called in to inform they were down with a fever or simply not feeling well. And secondly, several students had fainted barely halfway into the programme, so the coordinator had to cut the ceremony to an abrupt end and call in paramedics. As they were being carried away into the ambulances, Johan noticed they were extremely pale, and their breathing was soft and weak.

With all this shit going on, the fact that Johan _still_ felt perfectly normal bombarded his mind with questions. He was not the only one too, some of his friends in the university also mentioned they felt fine, which did nothing but churn up more questions.

He reached the entrance to Mercy Hospital the increased number of ambulances parked haphazardly at the side caught his attention. Fearing the worst, Johan stepped into the main lobby, and literally stepped into every doctor's nightmare.

The reception area was flooded with sick-looking people, many of whom were coughing or had a thermometer sticking out of their mouths. The nurses were running to and fro in an attempt to cater to the sheer number of patients while maintaining their cool, obviously failing at both. Children were crying, cradled in their mother's arms, adding to the ongoing chaos. Not wanting to be a victim, Johan hurriedly presented his appointment card to the receptionist, and was quickly ushered to the second floor.

A tall man greeted him on level 2. Johan peered at the man's nametag, which read "DR CHEN MALWICK".

"Ah, you must be Mr. Ho. My name is Dr. Chen, but you can call me Ashton. I'll be performing your check-up in place of Dr. Thomas today." Ashton said, stretching out his hand.

Johan shook it in kind. "Um, what happened to Dr. Thomas?"

"He had to attend an emergency meeting with the board over in Los Angeles. He authorised me to perform medical check-ups in his absence. Don't worry, I also have an honours in general practice, so I'm fully-qualified for this sort of thing, though not as efficient as Dr. Thomas."

"Oh, no no, it's alright." Johan replied.

Ashton led Johan into a small room. "Your check-up today's gonna be slightly different. All I'm going to do is take some samples of your blood, analyse it for a bit, and then you're free to go, just like that." Ashton explained, snapping his fingers.

After Ashton collected enough blood, he left the room, assuring Johan that he'll be back soon. True enough, he returned with a smile on his face.

"Alright Johan, I've looked at your blood samples and there isn't anything wrong with you. You're one healthy prick! You can leave now." Ashton opened the door, waiting for Johan to take his leave.

_An obvious lie._

Johan did not gain a reputation in his university through mere badminton matches. From young, he demonstrated a sound awareness and understanding of body language, allowing him to interpret the meaning behind people's words as they spoke.

"You're not telling me everything doctor."

Ashton's smile faded immediately. There was silence as the two stared into each other's eyes.

"What are you talking about? You're perfectly fine, that's the truth!" Ashton replied, managing a fake smile.

At his comment, Johan became slightly infuriated. "With all due respect, doctor, I believe I'm of the required age to know about my own medical condition. Everyone out there is either coughing or down with a fever, but here I am perfectly healthy despite being exposed to them twenty-four-seven. So just tell me, _what is wrong with me_."

Ashton was taken aback by Johan's retort. He slowly closed the door and then sat down in front of Johan.

"Very well, if you say so." His voice had dropped to a whisper, an indication of the intensity of what he was going to tell Johan. "Johan, I'll get straight to the point. You're infected with the same virus that those people downstairs probably have."

"Wh-what do you mean? I'm infected? But then, why am I still feeling alright?" Johan's voice was shaky. It was strange enough to know you were alright amidst all the sick people, even stranger now that he knows he's carrying the same shit as everyone else.

"I...I don't know." Ashton sighed. "The analysis of your blood puts the virus in plain sight, but it's not doing anything to the other cells, whereas samples of other people's blood show otherwise. Could be natural immunity, or it could be anything, who knows. There were reports circulating from China that a number of people exhibited no signs of symptoms or illnesses despite being exposed to the same environment as those that were infected, but you're the first person I've seen here in Fairfield who actually shares that similarity."

Johan opened his mouth to ask another question, but was cut off by a, loud crashing sound, followed by the sound of someone screaming. Both of them exchanged shocked glances before Ashton opened the door and they stepped outside. Just down the hall, a group of male nurses were attempting to wrestle something into a room. As they got closer, Johan saw that it was an old man in their grasps, screaming and spouting some sort of weird gibberish language. There was something wrong with the man's appearance, but Johan could not clearly tell from the ensuing struggle. It took four men to pull restraint him before they finally managed to drag him back into the room.

Ashton turned to one of the nurses who was tending to scratches on his skin. "Hey, what happened here? Why's he all fired up?"

"Hell, I don't know, doctor. I went in to check on his stats and he suddenly shot straight out of bed. Started scratching and biting at me, that crazy fuck. Good thing the other nurses were just outside, who knows what would've happened to me." The nurse ranted. "Christ, this hurts like hell..."

"Sedate him and keep him in the quarantine wards. Increase the dosage if he shows any form of struggle or violence." Ashton directed. He turned back to Johan. "Sorry Johan, but the explanation's gonna have to wait. I'll call you again when I have the time alright?"

As Ashton hurried into the same room as the old man, Johan managed to get a peek before the doors closed. The old man was still thrashing about on the bed, screaming and making weird animal-like noises, held back by the restraints and four pairs of hands. His skin was unusually dull in colour, and had a rather rough-looking texture.

A soft pat on his back snapped him out of his bewilderment. A female nurse was standing behind Johan, beckoning him to leave. Johan was more than happy to comply, not wanting to be in the line of sight if that crazy man were to break out again.

Well, at least he would get his answers soon, as Dr. Chen promised. Johan only hoped it would actually be good news.

Susan came rushing down the hallway only to run straight into a crowd of medical staff at the second floor lobby. Amongst the murmuring people, she could hear the stern voice of Ashton coming from the front.

"I want all warded patients who have shown the same symptoms to be closely monitored over the next forty-eight hours, at least one nurse to each. You will report every and any abnormalities to either the Chief of Staff or myself, and you will sure as hell not take your eyes off the patient for even a second. If you need a toilet break or simply want to please your little brother somewhere else, get someone to sub you. We don't wanna repeat the earlier incident." The murmuring got slightly louder as the nurses exchanged confused looks with each other at the sudden influx of instructions. "Oh, and before I forget, those who have come into direct contact with said patients, proceed to the quarantine wards to get your stats monitored over the next forty-eight hours, and that includes those injured in the earlier struggle. No questions asked!"

This time the noise rose to shouts of protest. Those who had fallen into the quarantine category were cussing, but none of them dared to raise their objections to Ashton. Susan grinned, leaning against the wall while waiting for the crowd to disperse to their required activities. This was hardly surprising- who would want to be confined to a room for two days, cut off from the luxuries of beer, cigarettes, and internet porn.

"Man, what's got you all fired up?" Susan said, walking towards Ashton when the coast was clear of swearing youngsters.

Ashton let out a sigh and ran his hand through his hair. He pointed at the room where the old man had broken out from. "See for yourself."

Susan raised an eyebrow, but refused to question him. She calmly walked towards the door and peered through the glass window. Immediately, her jaw literally fell open.

Rufus Jones- the kind, old, timid Rufus Jones- lay motionless on the bed, his arms and legs wrapped by reinforced restraints tied to the bed frames. His skin was of a dark greyish colour, and there was drool dribbling down the side of his mouth as he snored, indicating he was heavily sedated.

Susan tore her eyes away from the unsightly man and stared at the floor instead, unable to believe what she just saw. Ashton stood beside her, gazing at the slumbering man.

"Fever, rage, uncontrollable drooling, remind you of anything...?"

"Rabies... No fucking way..." It was all Susan could do from fainting on the spot. She had secretly doubted Ashton's hypothesis despite voicing her support to him. After all, rabies had never known to infect humans to such a degree, such theories would easily be labelled as crazy by the masses, simply because nobody believed it could happen.

But alas, it did. That sixty-two year old man in that room was more than enough evidence to blow any further doubts out the roof.

"Mr. Jones had severe migraines and coughing fits when he came in two days ago. If everyone else who's showing the same symptoms ends up like him..." Susan looked up and noticed the horror written all over Ashton's face. "I...no, we, need to go see the governor. Now. Can you drive us there?"

"Y-yeah, I'll be more than happy to." Susan said, breaking out of her trance. "But we can just go like that?"

"We could possibly have an outbreak here, I'm pretty sure that's enough to get us through reception."

As they were driving down to the parliament building, Ashton was deep in thought, staring out the window at nothing in particular. It had taken four men to effectively restrain Mr. Jones. If a single infected was this strong, then what would happen if there was an entire horde of them?

A rhetorical question indeed. If his theory was right (and it definitely was), Fairfield would turn into one big bloodbath very soon, and sadly, the one person who could stop this was the governor himself, a man not hated, and yet not loved, by the people.

Soon, they arrived at the infamous Parliament House, where the high-ranking officials could easily be found. The shining whiteness of the building's marble walls made it contrast greatly with the surrounding dull-coloured residential buildings, almost as if it was a distinction between rich and poor. The building's length stretched far towards either side, and, along with security fences, CCTVs, and guards, made it feel like it was a fortress than a mere meeting place.

Ashton pushed open the entrance doors and hurried in, followed closely by Susan. The layout inside the building was almost as grand as the outside. Portraits of past leaders hung on the walls, with lush wallpaper completing the decorations. Expensive-looking vases were placed at strategic locations where foreigners or leaders of other countries could easily see and admire them, or for the less fortunate folks to fantasize about. Above them, a grand chandelier, complete with glittering diamonds, bathed the lobby in an overwhelming glow.

"Welcome to Parliament House. Do you ha-"

Ashton didn't even wait for the receptionist to finish her sentence. "I need to speak to the governor. It's an emergency."

The receptionist, looking to be in the young twenties, was slightly taken aback. "Err, I'm sorry but Mr. Hetherson is busy right now. Would you like to make an appointment for another day?"

"Dammit, I said it's an emergency! Don't you girls know what emergency means?!" Ashton banged his fist on the desk, startling both receptionists.

"Ashton, calm down. You're not gonna get anywhere by sho-" Susan began, but was cut off by a firm voice.

"What's going on here?" Ashton and Susan turned to their side and saw a man the same height as Ashton facing them, his hands across his chest. He donned a security suit, making him instantly recognisable by anyone working there.

"Um, Mr. Lumphert, this man here says he needs to speak to Mr. Hetherson regarding an emergency." The receptionist recited.

The man called Lumphert rubbed his chin. "An emergency? What is this about?"

"Sir, please, you have to tell the governor to declare a state of emergency. The virus that originated from China could have very well reached our state already."

At the mention of the virus, everyone in the lobby, including Lumphert himself, looked shocked. Everyone had obviously been living off the governor's words that "there was no chance the virus will ever hit our shores, so help me God!", so nobody even cared to think of the consequences if such a situation did indeed happen. Apparently, not even the governor himself.

_Carelessness at its max, and we're gonna burn because of it._ The thought raced through Ashton's mind as he said this. How could the leaders of Man be so ignorant?!

Lumphert quickly regained his composure. "Ahem, and do you have any evidence to support this outrageous claim of yours?"

A surge of anger shot up inside Ashton. "O-outrageous?! A sixty year old man in the hospital just went wild and had to be restrained by four people, and he shared the same symptoms that eighty percent of the people are having! We're talking major outbreak he-"

Ashton stopped. Lumphert was silently laughing to himself.

"Right, a sixty year old man, and did any other patient "go crazy" after he did?"

At his question, Ashton hesitated. He had fallen right into Lumphert's trap.

"Are you implying that more people must succumb to this virus before you decide to do something...?" Ashton clenched his fist in anger as he said this.

"Oh, I didn't imply any of that sort. I'm simply asking you to check through your homework thoroughly before coming here and spreading ridiculous rumours of the virus reaching us. You may have been specially assigned to Fairfield to conduct goodness knows what kind of research, but that doesn't mean you can throw your weight around." Lumphert pointed at Ashton. "The virus will never reach us. End of discussion. Security, kindly escort our guests to the exit."

Ashton took a step forward to voice his objection, but was firmly held back by Susan. He looked back at her angrily, desperate to not let Lumphert do as he pleases, but a simple shake of Susan's head was enough for him to regain his composure. He gritted his teeth, glaring at Lumphert as he walked back to whichever hole he came from. He had let anger get the better of him, preventing him from thinking logically and making it personal instead.

_Unprofessional. So very unprofessional of you, Ashton._

He silently cursed at Lumphert before storming out the entrance. Susan apologised to the receptionists and hurried after Ashton. Once outside, Ashton let out a long line of swearing.

"That stuck up asshole, he's willing to let people die just because he can't bring himself to believe in the truth! Fuck him..."

"Hey, calm down Ashton. To them, we're just employees, they're not gonna believe what we say until it comes back to bite them in their asses." Susan placed her hand on Ashton's shoulder. Almost immediately, she could feel his shoulders slump from the soothing touch. "Come on, let's head back. At least you tried."

Ashton stared into Susan's face. For a moment, he admired her beautiful features. "So we're just gonna let them have their way? We're gonna let all hell break loose because we were too weak to prevent it?"

"Then what are you going to do? Run in with guns blazing and demand to see the governor? Well, you WOULD see him for a few seconds, and then a sniper would put you down."

The two of them laughed for a moment. The laughter helped to ease Ashton up a bit, and he began to cool off. "Alright, let's head back."

The authorities were blind to the potential chaos that lay right at their doorstep. Ashton didn't know how much time there was before everyone else exhibits the same behaviour as Mr. Jones. Could be next week, could be tomorrow, could even be once he takes the next step. As much as the thought frightened him, he couldn't even do anything. It's like knowing that a person was about to die right in front of you, and all you could do but watch in horror.

Once again, Ashton had failed.

"_I'm simply asking you to check through your homework thoroughly before coming here and spreading ridiculous rumours of the virus reaching us."_

Lumphert's words rang loudly in his head. As much as he hated his arrogance, Lumphert was right. In his obsession and desperation, he had charged headfirst into enemy territory without reloading his weapon. He had solid evidence, but did not piece it together properly enough to make it presentable and believable. Emotions of wanting to protect others clouded his judgement, not that having such emotions was bad, but this was something that Ashton had never experienced before. All along he thought of himself as the lone wolf seeking perfection. In his tests and competitions, he wouldn't have spared a single thought for his opponent.

It was either best, or be bested.

His thoughts unknowingly made him glance towards Susan. She wore a tired expression on her face, which wasn't surprising since she was hit with a deadly reality check just an hour ago. And right now, she was going through the same shit that he was. In fact, Ashton realized that in most of the situations he had gotten into since coming to Fairfield, she was always the one holding him back to reason and logic, preventing him from losing his cool. Sure, he knew that professional work had no room for personal affairs, but Ashton couldn't help but stare.

_Protecting others, eh... Heh, what have you gotten yourself into this time..._

The remainder of the night was spent with a cup of coffee, a pen, and a whole lot of hypothesis crammed onto pieces of paper. A massive book with the words '_Modern Age Diseases- Investigation & Analysis' _sat open on one side, to which Ashton furiously flipped through. Up till now, he couldn't establish a theory on how the virus could not express itself in that boy's body. Sure, genetic and chromosomal makeups were the key factors, but determining the exact reason was a completely different story. Natural immunity to the bacteria took centuries to develop in humans, and only through constant exposure. Immunity to Hepatitis B, a liver disease, only came about after being injected with vaccinations during early age. So then, how could individuals who have had no exposure to the virus, and thus no artificial vaccinations produced either, suddenly possess natural immunity to it.

There did seem to be similarities in the situations of natural selection- whereby an ecosystem underwent a change, demanding its inhabitants to develop a particular characteristic in order to continually survive. Those that could not simply perished, while those that lived, and possessed said characteristics, reproduced offspring which carried on the trait. Repeated cycles of natural selection leads to what we now term as 'evolution'.

_Well, this is certainly one fucked up form of natural selection at work._

Ashton leaned back and stretched, staring at the roof.

_Wonder if I'm immune too, although if that were true I would've won the lottery by now._ Ashton laughed at the thought of questioning fate.

He got up and walked to his room window. His private house overlooked a public park in front of the supermarket. A simple 2-storey semi-detached that sat alongside several other similar units, with a small personal garden allocated to each. Ashton had little use for that, thus leaving it to be cared for by the house cleaner he hired. Being a biomedical researcher, the government had funded his division rather well.

The very same government that was going to get them all killed.

Ashton shook his head and drew the curtains, determined to sleep his sorrow away. Outside, the cold wind howled through the empty streets, almost as if it was a sign of things to come.

**Hell's Hour – 3 hours**

The shrill siren cut through the morning air, drawing the gazes of every single passerby. Jason yawned slightly as he began to go over their task.

Just minutes ago, the station received a phone call from a panicked woman. She sounded extremely frightened and literally whispered into the phone.

"He-help me... Please help me... H-h-he's gone craz-crazy... H-h-hel-p, please!" Her voice shook with each word, and crashing sounds were heard in the background, almost as if someone was trying to bash down the door to get to the woman. The rest of her words became muffled with her cries of fear. It wasn't long before the operator managed to track down the origin of the call and sent them scrambling out of the police station.

"Sounds just like a simple rape to me." The officer seated behind waved his hand in the air. "Although you have to admit, the rapist sounded really serious about 'doing it'."

"Hanks, does every case have to be about rape, sex, and hot chicks to you? Geez, you're hopeless." The police officer driving sighed as he spoke.

Hanks banged his hand against the metal grill closer to the driver's seat. "Shut yer mouth, Richard. What else would it sound like, genius?!"

"Guys, is this the best time to be arguing on this sort of thing...?" Jason smacked his forehead with his hand.

Within minutes, the three policemen were running up the apartment stairs. Soon, they reached the fifth floor and were directed by concerned neighbours towards the crashing noises. It was at this point, a strange feeling overcame Jason, something which he had never experienced before during his duties.

He would have simply brushed it aside as normal work-related fear, but this was somehow, different. Instead of simply being afraid of what was going to happen, he felt as if he already knew _what _was going to happen. It made Jason feel as if he was fearful of what he was going to see.

_Tch, what the hell are you thinking? This isn't the Twilight zone, snap out of it and focus! You're a policeman!_

A couple standing near the end of the hallway were waving at them and pointing at room 512, indicating they had reached the source of the mysterious call. Even from outside, they could hear a thumping sound coming from inside the apartment, along with the sound of someone screaming, barely audible through the layers of wall.

Jason knocked loudly on the sturdy timber door. "This is the Fairfield Police, open up!"

At once, the thumping and the shouting stopped. Jason became slightly nervous at this point, and stopped himself from knocking any further. He gestured at the surrounding onlookers. "Return to your rooms, we got this. Ok, by the books, got it?"

Jason placed his hand on the handle and turned, slowly and carefully in an attempt to minimise noise. His skills of awareness had kicked in as soon as they arrived- the thumping stopped just as he began knocking on the door, indicating that whoever, or _whatever_, causing the ruckus responded to noise. The door creaked disturbingly loudly in the silence, and Jason edged his way in, holding the custom 9mm Beretta that all policemen were issued with at ready. Normally in this sort of situations, standard procedures stated that the officer has to forcefully make his presence known by calling out to criminals hiding in their own apartments, but Jason didn't give a fuck about that right now. To him, it was simply a way of saying 'Hey, I'm right here, you can shoot me now that you know my position!'.

In fact, he found many of the procedures taught at the Academy total bullshit. He was the sort of person who wanted to quickly finish off whatever he had to do so he could kick back and sip on a glass of beer, and running in while yelling 'POLICE, PUT YOUR HANDS UP!' when they knew the criminals were expecting them and thus, armed to the teeth, isn't going to result in a hasty capture. But, for the sake of impressing the bigshots, he happily and professionally played along. Many a times, he almost wanted to break out laughing because he simply found what he was doing too hilarious.

However, this time there was no room for laughing. The atmosphere that dominated the apartment was dark and sinister, as if demanding them to leave and never return.

The apartment was almost pitched dark. The only window facing outside was covered by a thick-looking curtain. The walkway Jason was on lead a little ways down where it forked into the living room on the left, and the kitchen and storage space on the right. Right at the junction, there was a broken lamp, its glass cover smashed into pieces that littered the floor. There was some sort of liquid near the corner leading to the kitchen. Jason squinted hard, trying to make it out with only the light coming from behind them to help. It was stagnant, red in colour, looking uncannily like...

"Oh shit, is that blood over there...?" Hanks whispered from behind Jason.

Blood. No doubt about it. Its presence would only mean one thing in this movie-like scenario.

Before Jason could further analyse the situation, there was a creaking of floorboards from the living room, and the figure of a man came into his line of sight. In the darkness, Jason could barely make out that the man was had a short, plumb build. Richard shifted till he was beside Jason and flicked his flashlight on.

"H-hey, wait, tu-"

As soon as the man was bathed in the blinding light, he let out a blood curling scream and sprinted straight towards the light source. Within the few seconds, Jason saw that the man had blood trails from his eyes, nose and mouth. His skin had a greyish colour instead of a normal shade of brown colour, and his hands were stained with blood as well. There was absolutely no hesitation in the man as he ran screaming towards Jason, and Jason returned it in kind. The gunshots echoed down the entire storey, amplified by the initial silence. The bullets hit the man in his chest and leg. He fell down to the ground but was clearly not giving up in his attempt. He continued to swing his arm at Richard, while using the other to drag himself closer. He also continued to scream, producing nothing but a gurgling sound due to all the internal bleeding.

"What... What the _fuck_?!" All three of them repeated in unison. There, right in front of their eyes, was a man who had more than 5 pieces of lead embedded in his body, and yet he could still move and breathe. Blood oozed out of the man's mouth and where the bullets had hit as his actions slowed down, finally stopping as his heart simply shut down.

Richard wiped the sweat off his brow. "Okay, what in God's name just happened."

"Dude, you shot him five times and he still kicked for the next minute. That's one hell of an endurance." Hanks flipped on his flashlight and was observing the body for any further movements. "What the, why is his skin all grey..."

Jason made his way into the kitchen, or what was left of it anyways. The kitchen table had overturned into a corner, and the chairs were lying rather than standing. The blood stains continued all around the area, and the tidiness of the living room was not spared either.

"Hey, I found our girl!" Richard called out from one of the rooms. "It's alright, it's alright, you're gonna be... Woah."

Jason and Hanks hurried into the bedroom and found Richard talking a lady who appeared to be in her thirties. She was huddled in the closet and had scratch marks all over her arms and face, and even a rather big gash on her left arm that looked almost like a bite mark. Her skin was extremely pale, and she was trembling violently, unable to even talk properly. Richard put his arm around her shoulder and helped her to her feet, gesturing the other two to move out and call for an ambulance.

"Jesus Christ, that's one nasty-looking wound you got there, but help's coming, don't wor-GAH!"

They had barely taken two steps out into the living room when Richard let out a painful scream. Jason turned around and saw blood gushing out from Richard's neck. The trembling woman from before had sunk her teeth into it.

"Holy! Get the fuck back!" Hanks pulled on the woman with all his might, but her mouth remained clasped tightly around Richard's carotid artery. Only with Jason's and Hanks' combined strength did they manage to pull her away from Richard. There was a wet, tearing sound as the flesh where she bit simply ripped off along with her mouth. "Oh God, Richard!"

Hanks was pulling Richard back out into the living room, while trying to stem the bleeding with his hand. The woman crashed into the opposite end of the bedroom having been pushed by two policemen, but immediately clambered back to her feet and dashed screaming at Jason. On instinct, Jason brought his right hand back to his side, and swung with all his might in a semi-circular action in front of him, smashing the butt of his weapon square into the woman's cheek. There was an audible crack as her lower jaw dislocated from its joint, and she literally flew sideways into the wall. But, just like the man they shot, she did not simply stop moving. She slowly stood back up, her bloodshot eyes staring straight at Jason, who almost puked at the sight of her mouth hanging inhumanly wide open. Her lower jaw, having popped out of its joint, hung loosely as low as her throat, but that didn't stop her from screaming and resumed running towards Jason, only this time her screaming became extremely low-pitched.

"JUST FUCKING STAY BACK!"

And this time, one shot was all it took to put her down. Jason delivered a deadly headshot right between the woman's eyes, smearing the wall behind her with her own brains. Her head cocked backwards from the force of the bullet, and she fell limply to the floor.

Jason soon found himself ripping fabrics off his uniform to stop the gushing from Richard's severed artery, but no matter how much pressure they applied, the blood just kept flowing.

"F....fuch...mee..." Richard's mouth open and closed as he tried to speak. Blood bubbles were forming at the corners of his mouth.

"No no, don't try to speak, you'll make the bleeding worse. Hanks, where the fuck is that goddamn ambulance!"

"They're on their way, five minutes!"

"RICHARD DOESN'T HAVE FIVE FUCKING MINUTES!"

Jason found his voice shaking with the exact same fear that the woman had when she spoke over the phone. That feeling from before, had he taken note of it, this wouldn't have happened. Richard wouldn't be lying on the ground, soaked in his own blood.

"Guess...f-fate..doeshn'tch...lyke...me..." Richard coughed as he spoke, spitting out more of his blood.

"Stop talking, and don't fucking say anything about fate. You're gonna walk out of this fine, you hear me!"

The other officers in the department had all noticed, simply a few months after Jason's induction into their network, that he liked to attribute many things to fate. It was his way of telling himself that everything happened for a reason. A reason that only a higher power had control over.

Only this time, it happened because of him.

**Hell's Hour – 1 hour**

"How's he doing right now?" Nicole asked nervously over the phone. She was pacing to and fro in her room, having received a call from her mother just a short while ago.

"_Sweety, you don't have to worry. He's doing fine. The doctors said that his fever just got higher, that's all." _Replied the soft, soothing voice of her mother on the receiver.

Nicole still couldn't put her worries at rest. "Which ward is Uncle Thomas in? I'll go visit him once I finish up my assignments here."

Her mother sighed. _"I knew I wouldn't be able to calm you that easily. He's in ward 38C, lev...l...fou...of th-the...hos..."_

"Hello? Mum, are you there? Hello!" Nicole raised her voice into the phone. Nothing but static came from the other side. "Ah, fuck this stupid thing!"

She hastily scribbled down what she managed to hear before the line got cut and tossed her cell onto the table. Her mother had called to inform her that her uncle had been hospitalized, and to reassure her that she should carry on her studies and not worry about it. She was slightly annoyed that her parents still thought of her as the stereotypical delicate school girl who could not handle pressure unless the parents said things like 'It's going to be ok'. University life was demanding, more so that Nicole was living by herself, thus by being here is more than enough for her parents to get the message that she's matured, she's independent, and she can sure as hell take bad news.

Her stomach grumbled as fierce as her emotions raged, and a quick journey to the kitchen told her she was running out of food. Nicole grabbed her purse and facemask, and before long, was walking down the roads to the nearby supermarket. There was nothing much unusual happening outside- only a handful of cars passed by, and even fewer people.

_Then again, the definition of 'unusual' right now would be something bright and colourful that cheers everyone in this creepy place up._

Nicole did notice, however, that every now and then, there were people sitting down on the pavements with their backs leaning against the building and their head slumped downwards, obstructing their face. Some were even lying down in the alleyways. What was more strange was that some of them were dressed in business suits.

_What the, it's almost as if they decided to just take a nap out here! _Nicole thought as she eyed them with caution.

The so-called trend of Fairfield citizens was that if something doesn't concern you, don't be a busybody and poke your nose into it. It was a law that Nicole happily obeyed as she quickened her pace to the supermarket. Along the way, she passed a few of the National Guardsmen that were sparsely deployed all around the city, all of whom Nicole could tell were bored out of their minds, despite being clad in all that protective gear.

Fortunately, Walmart wasn't very crowded, so she could get the necessary food and retreat back to the comforts of her room. She paced down the row selling frozen food, frowning.

_Tch, you'd think they would at least show what are the differences between similar brands. I always have such a hard time deciding which brand of food to buy!_

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she was not looking in front of her, and walked straight into the back of an old man. The impact snapped her out of her thoughts and she hastily apologised.

"Hmph, at ease, kiddo." came the reply from the burly man before he walked off. He was dressed in military-themed clothes- yellow, faded shirt underneath a green Army jacket, tan trousers ending in combat boots, and donned a shiny green-coloured beret that seemed to contrast with his bleak outfit.

'_At ease'?! Since when did I enlist into the military?!_

Nicole continued her mental debate for a good amount of time, and was heading to the cashier when she heard a commotion from one of the queues.

"Ma'am, are you all right?"

"Oh damn, I think she might be having a seizure. Angela, can you call 911?" Nicole recognised that voice as that of the old man she accidentally bumped into earlier.

"All the circuits are busy. What do we do now?"

"Whoa!" exclaimed the old man.

Nicole tried to see what was happening over the shelves when an inhuman scream rang out, and before she knew it, people were screaming and running in all directions- one of them was a cashier with a hand around his bleeding nose. She frantically looked around and soon found the source of the chaos.

A woman with something long hanging out of her mouth was roaring and assaulting another woman with a baby and appeared to bite into her neck, to Nicole's disgust. The old man from before dashed towards the assailant with a small blade in his hand, and that was all she could see before a shrill scream from behind startled her. She dropped her basket of groceries and whirled around.

A few feet away, a man had dropped onto all fours and hacking and coughing heavily. Before Nicole could even react, he looked up straight at her with blood red eyes, and let out another high-pitched roar before leaping high into the air. His body collided heavily into Nicole, and she fell backwards, hitting her head hard on the tiled floor. A wave of dizziness and pain overcame her as she struggled with her attacker. The man began scratching and clawing at Nicole, tearing into her clothes and skin. She held her arms across her face as the only means of protection, but it did little to shield her body. She tried to move, but the man's waist had her effectively pinned to the ground, and all she could do was scream.

"H-help! Get him...get him OFF me!"

Suddenly, there was a loud 'oomph!', and Nicole felt the weight of the man suddenly lifted from her body. Her vision was spinning and she could barely make out what she was seeing. Someone else had shoved the man off her, and was now bashing his head in with a metal container. Soon, the man who attacked her lay motionless on the ground as a pool of blood formed around his head.

"Hey, you alright? Quick, we gotta get out of here!"

Nicole found herself being yanked to her feet. Her dizziness had not yet fully gone away from the hit she took, but it was manageable. She glanced down and saw that her shirt was ripped in several places, and her arms were bleeding severely from the scratches. The tall man who saved her led the way out of the supermarket.

Outside, it was nothing but complete chaos. Gunfire erupted from everywhere as the Guardsmen tried to protect themselves and other people. She could see people being attacked by...

_By other people? What the hell...?_

People with bloodshot eyes were attacking everyone in sight, either biting into them or mercilessly beating them till death. Nicole couldn't believe what she was seeing. The virus had exploded in full force. Other people were running and screaming for their lives, only to draw more of these...these, _infected_, toward themselves. Wrecked cars were everywhere along the streets, and several lampposts had collapsed to the ground

The man in front delivered a shoulder thrust into an attacker who attempted to lunge at him, knocking him a good distance away. With that extra few seconds he earned, they both made a mad dash towards the row of buildings opposite the supermarket. The man dashed into one of the houses, Nicole following closely behind, before he slammed the door shut and bolted it. Seconds later, sounds of banging were heard from the opposite, accompanied by nonsensical screaming.

Nicole sat panting on the sofa as the man hastily shifted tables and chairs in front of the door. Screaming and gunfire continued to echo from outside, ringing deeply into Nicole's head, reminding her of that man's screaming before he pounced onto her. She shuddered simply thinking about it.

When the banging died down, the sound of someone crying became audible over the gunfire, and it was coming from the second level.

The man's face went pale with shock. "Oh shit, Susan!"

That was all he said before he ran up the stairs, leaving Nicole in the living room. She stared blankly at the wall, completely oblivious to the pain in her arms.

Right in front of her very eyes, her home, her lifetime worth of memories, had plunged into chaos. She was comforted that her family had already moved out of Fairfield, but was equally saddened by the fact that all her friends could either be dead or dying by now. Questions flooded into her head, about the infection and how it even got through the borders into the country. About how the hell people like her were going to survive this apocalypse. A slight burst of anger coursed through her body as she thought about the authorities assuring the public that we were safe from infection.

_Lies. All lies!_ Nicole screamed in her head. Whether it were lies or not, karma had a way of coming back to punish those who deserved it. Then, why was she, along with a million other people, suffering as a result?

With no answers and no hope left in her, she simply lowered her face into her hands and began crying. The gunfire outside gradually died down, replaced only by the screams of unfortunate people.

* * *

A/N: Chapter 3 might take a little longer to be up. I've almost finished writing it up, but it still needs to go through editing, plus school assignments are beginning to swarm me. HARD. At the most, chapter 3 should be up in 2 week's time, hopefully sooner if I can squeeze in time to finish it up.

Thanks goes out to Lardcake212 and Alwin, both of whom have acted as wonderful proof-readers, both now and in future chapters to come.

R&R pl0x! Any advice regarding writing style, chapter length, and even ideas for story pathways are welcome.


	3. Chapter 3: Hell's Hour

Author's Note:

Uploaded 35 minutes before the 2-week deadline that I promised, whew~

Hi to all you readers out there. The first thing I want to say is, as mentioned in the first chapter (I think), I like to be halfway into the next chapter before uploading the previous one so as to prevent factual errors, however upon uploading this chapter, I have not even started on chapter 4 (I did actually, but the document went missing strangely enough), and with university assignments flooding in, chapter 4 might be quite far off. I'm thinking between 2-3 weeks.....hopefully.

Regarding this chapter, despite trying to reduce word length, I ended up typing out 17 MSword pages worth, which is about 3-4pages longer than the first two chapters. How strange is that?

Disclaimer: I do not own L4D or any of its related ideas and logos. I only own the original characters that have been created in this story.

Thanks goes out to Lardcake212, Alwin, Nicole, Jason, and Max. My life would have been so dull without you guys! XD

* * *

**Chapter 3: Hell's Hour**

**Hell's Hour**

The taste of blood was bitter in his mouth, but it did little to distract Johan as he followed closely behind the soldier in front. Minutes ago, he was just walking down the streets, minding his own business like everyone else, when all hell broke loose around him. One could even say that it was almost like a coordinated outbreak. Everything was normal before the people who were slumped against the walls suddenly got up and began assaulting everyone in sight. Many ran onto the road, causing cars to swerve off and smash into the buildings and lampposts. All it took was 13 seconds to turn the clean, peaceful streets of Fairfield into a raging warzone filled with blood and fear.

A woman was lying in the alleyway next to Johan when she suddenly lunged forward and grabbed his foot, pulling him down to the ground. He practically landed face first, biting hard on his tongue. He turned around to see the woman attempting to drag him closer towards her.

"Argh, let go of me you bitch!"

The woman didn't seem to understand as she continued to hurl indecipherable words at him. Johan pulled back his free leg and kicked out hard. His foot connected squarely on the woman's forehead, instantly snapping her neck. As Johan struggled to get back on his feet, he could see other people getting attacked elsewhere.

Despite all the chaos happening around him, Johan stood rooted to the spot for a few seconds. The horrendous scenario unfolding just before his very eyes was practically a live re-enactment of what he had seen on the news. People mindlessly attacking others and even eating them alive, such was the horrors of the virus that plagued the entire continent of Asia, and now it was here, right smack in his face.

A bullet zoomed right past his head, causing Johan to flinch. He instinctively raised his hands, only to hear the sound of a body behind him collapse to the ground. He peered back and saw that it was another infected- a young boy no older than himself. Johan felt a conflicting wave of sadness and anger. The government had reassured them that their homes would be safe, waving and smiling happily amongst the never-ending applause of happy citizens. They had betrayed the trust given by the people, presenting false hope so that they wouldn't have to face thousands of worried citizens every single day.

"Hey, you there! Get o-AH!"

Johan tore his eyes away from the dead boy and glanced across the road. A soldier, probably the same one who saved him, was engaged in a deadlock with another assailant, using his gun as the only barrier between himself and that man's mouth. Johan dashed across and thrust his shoulder into the infected, throwing him off and freeing the soldier. Before the infected even had a chance to recover, the soldier whipped out his sidearm and shot him in the head. The sight of blood splattering out of the man's head horrified Johan. It was the first time he'd seen such a huge amount of blood in real life.

"Thanks, but hey, you know how we can get outta here?!" The soldier yelled at Johan, his voice barely audible over the screaming.

Johan stared blankly back at the soldier. 'Kelvin G.Y.' was written on the front of his uniform. "Y-yeah."

Kelvin shot another two infected who were running towards Johan from behind. The sound from his M4 assault rifle was deafening, almost causing Johan to get temporary deafness. "Lead the way then. Here, ever fired a gun before?"

Kelvin handed Johan his sidearm. Johan was no stranger to small firearms. He went to the police station's station firing range with Jason many times. On instinct, he unloaded the magazine and checked the rounds inside. He reinserted it and cocked the weapon, finger on the trigger.

"Hey, not bad!" Kelvin smiled. "Lead the way, man!"

And here they were, running in between wrecked cars and dead bodies, shooting at any infected that came at them. Most of the time it was Kelvin who did the actual killing, since Johan couldn't keep a steady aim.

How could he? He's only 21 years old. He liked badminton, video games, and going out with friends. Sure, he fired a weapon before, but at target boards. Never before had he shot at a person. Even if they came running at him with blood flowing out of their mouths, his hands still trembled as he took aim, and pulling back on the trigger felt like he was pulling a hundred tonnes of weight.

A few minutes of cutting through lobbies and alleyways, and a hell lot of shooting, and they finally reached the police station. The dull-coloured building shined like a star in Johan's eyes. Along the way, three more people, having been saved by them, followed- a businessman, a cyclist, and a waitress.

There were sounds of gunfire coming out of the police station as they rounded a corner. Johan pressed himself against the wall just next to the glass walls of the entrance. The glass walls had already shattered, giving the station a very big entrance instead. Any infected that came into the line of fire were instantly taken care of. Behind Johan, Kelvin guarded their rear, while the other three continued to scream and cry, much to his annoyance.

Johan stuck his hand out and shouted, "Jason! Jason, it's me! I'm coming in!"

At once, the shooting stopped. Jason's hoarse voice came from the back of the police station. "You've got five seconds to get in before we start shooting again!"

Johan waved at the others behind him, and they all dashed straight inside. The police station was designed such that there were few walls inside the building itself, since the designer of the place believed that the more one could see, the better. The downside was that the infected could see all the way in too.

The first level was the reception and cubicles for all the policemen on duty. At the far corner was a flight of stairs that led up to where the meeting and planning rooms were. It was where, in the event of any large-scale terrorist attack or hostage-taking situations, all personnel involved will be briefed. It also housed the room for the head of the police force, whom Jason and the others liked to call, the 'Big Boss'.

Jason and two other officers, whom Johan recognised as Hanks and Tuckson, were shooting from a row of overturned tables right in front of the weapon storage room. Johan and the rest winded in between the rows of cubicles, taking extra care to avoid fratricide, and were soon inside the spacious storage room. They literally collapsed to the floor, panting. Soon after, Jason and the other two officers came in, slamming the door behind them and bolting it securely. Due to safety and security reasons, the two doors leading into the weapons storage room were made of thick, reinforced steel. A long, narrow slit in the door allowed one to clearly see what was on the other side.

"Thank God you're alright!" Jason said as he bear-hugged Johan. "Fuck man, everybody outside suddenly went crazy, I thought you did too."

"I'm ok, I'm ok, don't worry." Johan replied back. Images of the woman who attacked him came rushing back into his head. She was so relentless in her attack, almost animal-like even.

"Do you all have, like, backup coming or anything?" The businessman looked at the soldier.

Kelvin sighed and stared at the roof. "Our communications suddenly went out minutes before everything went to hell, so I have no idea if we have 'backup' coming."

The businessman looked horrified at the frank answer. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed Kelvin by the collar. "What the fuck! You're supposed to be protecting us! How can you not have any backup or rescue coming?!" The waitress began crying where she was.

"You'd do well to get your fucking hands off me." Kelvin said, staring straight into the businessman's eyes. He was clad in the standard issue LBV, which, along with his muscular physique, gave him a very intimidating appearance.

"People! People! Calm down!" Hanks stepped in and pried the man from Kelvin. "I'm sure the military will send help soon. We just have to stay here and wait it out."

Everyone slumped back into their places. Jason took a step forward and spoke. "Ok, first thing's first, introductions. Can't have us going 'Hey, you!' all the time. This is Hanks, and Tuckson, and I'm Jason. Now..."

The other three looked among themselves before the cyclist spoke up first. "Wade Bunsen."

"I-I'm Alicia." The waitress said among her sobs.

"Hmph, Laurence." The businessman said, looking away.

"2nd Lieutenant Kelvin Oakes, 1st Division National Guardsmen." Kelvin said with pride. Johan was momentarily impressed with his calm and collected personality. He had never met anyone from the military who expressed much pride in their work. Most of the time, they would be grumbling about how fucked up the system was.

"Ha, who gives a fuck what your rank is." Laurence whispered under his breath, but loud enough for Kelvin to hear. Yet, Kelvin didn't seem the least bit bothered by the prejudiced remark.

"Sir, can we count on your military skills for protection?" Jason said, extending his hand.

"Likewise." Kelvin shook his hand. "And Kelvin's just fine. Situation no longer calls for formalities."

Everyone spent the rest of the day locked in their own world. Alicia was huddled in the corner as Hanks tried to comfort her. Laurence continued to grumble while trying to find a comfortable spot to lie down, and grumble more. Wade was engaged in deep conversation with Kelvin. Apparently, he was intending to join the army, and so was intrigued by Kelvin. By now, Kelvin had took off his LBV and helmet and threw them to one side, only slinging his weapon by his side.

They all had agreed beforehand that two people will take shifts (excluding Alicia) on the second floor rooms that overlooked the roads- one civilian with one officer. Johan, as expected, paired with Jason. That night, they both sat at opposite corners of the window in one of the meeting rooms. Below them, in the faint moonlight, they could see numerous infected roaming the streets. Johan noticed many of them were just wandering about, sitting or lying down. This brought Johan back to just before the infection broke out. He had seen many people sitting or lying down along the pavements, but paid no attention to their seemingly motionless bodies. He kicked himself mentally for not being more careful.

Some of the infected were holding their heads as they shambled about, probably hinting at some sort of headache, while the rest were feasting on corpses. Johan wanted to just vomit at the sight of intestines spilling out of a person's body. At the same time, he was humoured by the fact that zombies had finally managed to jump out of the movies and into reality. He was even more amazed that these modern zombies could run at inhuman speeds. While on the way here, Johan had seen multiple occasions where people tried to outrun the infected but were quickly caught up and torn apart.

"Heh, running zombies. Talk about being fair, eh. I'm totally calling zombie bullshit on that one." Johan joked.

Jason made no reply. He was lost in thought at how fast everything seemed to happen. Hours ago, he was frantically trying to save Richard's life. Then, while driving back, a man ran onto the road and made him crash his car. Soon after, they were chased by people who behaved the exact same way the man and woman he shot earlier did. Nothing but one problem after another. Even as he thought about it, he knew Richard was already dead. The infection would've spread into him when that woman bit into his neck, and he's probably roaming the streets right now, a dead man walking. Jason clenched his fists in anger.

Johan could feel the negative emotions literally radiating from Jason. He wanted to speak, but at the same time, told himself not to. He easily recognised the look on Jason's face. It was the look of losing someone very dear, or having to see someone you care for suffer greatly. It would be best if such a person was left alone. Anything he said would be of no use anyway.

The rest of their watch was spent in silence. Infected continued to wander around on the roads. Johan eyed them with both curiosity and hatred- these people, or at least, they once were people, had destroyed his home in the blink of an eye; at the same time, he wondered what was the driving mechanism behind the infected. When there was no actual living thing in sight, they simply wander around in stupor and waste away.

Was that really all there was to a person infected with super rabies? Kill, eat, laze, rinse and repeat. It sounded so much like the zombies in the movies Johan liked to watch. Who would have thought he'd get to see it up close and personal.

A heavy cough pierced through the silence, causing both of them to almost fall off their chairs in shock. Jason sat up straight and gave a huge yawn.

"Damn, you couldn't have chosen a better time to cough so loudly." His whispers sounded like screaming in the deadly silence.

"It wasn't me. Besides, I don't smoke." Johan pointed towards the far end of the street. "Think it came from there."

Despite the amount of moonlight casting down onto the road, they could hardly see anything further than a few feet from the building. The shadowy outlines of the infected could be faintly seen through the thin fog, but nothing more.

There it was again. A dry, exaggerated cough that could only be produced by someone who's been smoking since the day he was born. It repeated a few times before proceeding into a deep breath, however it sounded very forced, as if the person himself was having immense difficulties inhaling.

"Since when did infected smoke cigarettes?"

"Shh! Rooftop, ten o'clock."

Jason had always liked to speak to Johan using the same 'police language' that he'd use among his colleagues. Johan kept getting caught off guard by phrases like 'front and center' or 'atten-HUT!', whom he would have had absolutely no idea what the underlying meaning was, drawing laughter from everyone else.

And that laughter was all that he needed to tell himself that he was still alive, full of colour contrasting that of the city's bleak portrait of life. He was one of the few who didn't like to lay down just because the others were doing. Half of his childhood was spent in New Zealand, a place of vibrant colours. The people there were open and thoughtful for one another, promoting a happy environment for all. The culture shock that he received when he first set foot in Fairfield was immense. Within his first week here, he had been deliberately bumped against, stared at, and discriminated. People here weren't caring at all. It was the painful reality that Johan had to face at young, that everywhere else isn't going to be as cosy as New Zealand.

Nevertheless, it did little to dampen his spirits. He quickly caught on to the dull trends in Fairfield, whilst keeping his personality unchanged. His cheerful exterior earned him many friends at school.

Most of whom would be dead by now.

He followed the directions given and spotted a tall figure climbing on the top of the clothing store further down the road. The police station sat in a very strategic location that enabled one to see all the way down the roads on either side, though the darkness prevented them from seeing all the way down the streets.

The figure continued to pace around the rooftop, keeping well in the shadows like a predator eyeing its prey. A faint fog seemed to follow it around, and Johan later noticed that the fog was actually coming out of the person's body itself. As much as it looked like it was watching something, it sure didn't do a good job at keeping silent. Every few seconds, it repeated the same dry coughing fits that could easily be heard for miles away.

Another movement caught Johan's eye. This time, it came from the shadowy interior of the opposite pharmacy. Johan could see someone moving around the entrance, holding something rather bulky in its hands. His heart jumped when he realized that it was another survivor, who probably went into the pharmacy to get medicine for a fellow companion. The survivor, most probably a man given his build, constantly peered around to check if the coast was clear. He could hear the coughing, but apparently didn't care as he gave one final sweep of the area before stepping out onto the pavement.

Johan stood up, but was firmly held back by Jason. "What the fuck? There's someone else out here, w have to help him!"

"He's already dead, look." Jason replied calmly. His eyes seemed devoid of life as he spoke. Johan frowned and looked back at the survivor.

As soon as the man stepped out of the safety of the pharmacy, the coughing figure let out a rough scream that sent shivers down Johan's spine. Never before had he heard such a terrifying sound, not even the roaring of lions at the zoo came close to this. It rang in his head and echoed off the walls of the room, making it sound as if there were a hundred of those things roaring at the same time. After it roared, Johan saw that it retracted the dangling object into its mouth, before shooting it out with the speed of the bullet straight towards the survivor, whom had froze in his steps as soon as he heard the scream. It wrapped tightly around his body, forcing him to drop whatever he was carrying. He tried to aim at the figure with his free hand, but was momentarily swept off his foot as the figure began pulling him in, giving off some sort of choking sound in the process.

_Oh God, is that its tongue?!_

The survivor began shouting and firing wildly at it. Many bullets missed, and the few that hit only caused it to flinch a little. The shouting and gunshots, accompanied by the fact that he was pulled straight into the middle of the road, drew the attention of all the infected around him. They descended upon him in seconds as one united horde, tearing his body apart limb from limb. When the horde dispersed, all that remained was the carcass of a human torso mixed with a pool of blood and vomit. The figure slowly withdrew its long tongue back until it was dangling in front of it again, before it turned around and disappeared into the shadows.

Johan simply stared at the corpse that was just moments ago, breathing and completely alive.

_That thing... It just pulled him straight out like a frog. Like a...a licker..._

"Licker? What, we're giving 'em names now?"

Johan snapped out of his awe. In his dumb-foundedness, he had absent-mindedly said out the word.

"Err, I didn't know what else to call it. You saw what it did to that guy. Simply yanked him all the way out there!" Johan continued. "Is the virus causing that as well?!"

Jason raised his arms in defeat. "Well, who knows. As long as that Licker, as you called it, doesn't wrap its nice, warm tongue around my ass, I'm happy with just surviving!"

Johan smiled to himself. Jason was at least showing some form of vibrancy, compared to the past few hours.

When they returned to the safe room (as Jason and the other two liked to call it), Wade was yawning and rubbing his eyes, having been abruptly awoken by Hanks.

"Up and at 'em, it's our shift."

"Ugh, hold on, give me another few minutes..."

"Yeah right. Get up already!"

"Let me just...count to ten..."

"Like hell you are!"

As Hanks and Wade continued wrestling in their corner of the room, Kelvin was sitting against the wall, calmly cleaning his rifle while humming a tune to himself. He raised his head when Johan approached him.

"Something wrong?"

The rifle components were laid out neatly in front of him. Johan could only recognise the mandatory parts like the firing pin and bolt calibre group, but the rest appeared alien to him. He had only seen the inside of a rifle from textbooks, and to be frankly honest, he felt hyped just by being next to one in real life.

Johan quietly sat down in front of Kelvin. "How, how do you do it...?"

Kelvin raised an eyebrow. "How do I do what? Dissemble this rifle? Well, it's easy, first you-"

"No, I mean, how do you shoot at someone so calmly?" Johan spoke in almost a whisper now. "Back when we were still running, you fired at them without even hesitating."

Kelvin sighed and placed his tools down. He leaned his head back against the wall and stared at the ceiling. "Simple, either I shoot, or I die. How hard can that be?"

"But they're _people_, just like us."

Kelvin leaned forward, staring straight into Johan's eyes. "Not anymore."

"And who are you to judge?"

"When you're in my position, you have to learn to be quick. Men depend on me to protect them, and vice versa. Hesitate for half a second, and someone on my side dies. And his blood won't be on the hands of the one who shot him, it'd be on mine, all cause I couldn't gather up the guts to shoot the enemy first."

Johan remained silent. There was a tinge of sadness coming from Kelvin's voice. Perhaps there was truth to what he said after all.

"It doesn't matter who or what I'm killing." Kelvin shifted his gaze to the other people around the room. "As long as my bullet protects someone else, I'll be more than happy to fire it."

Johan looked down to the dirty floor. Killing people, infected or not, was something that he would have to get used to from now on. He'd seen the carnage that happened just hours ago. He'd seen death rear its ugly head all around him. He knew what would have happened if Kelvin didn't shoot the infected behind him in time.

Kelvin's philosophy was right. No doubt about that.

"Hey Kelvin, we don't have much food in here but some biscuits. We should head to the supermarket tomorrow night to try and get some."

The sadness staining Kelvin's face disappeared almost as fast as it appeared. "Oh, yeah I totally agree."

"Hanks and I will go, since your heavy firepower is needed here more."

Johan's heart jumped a beat when he heard that Jason was going out there. Out into the hellhole.

"You sure?" Kelvin asked, but quickly corrected himself. "Well, alright. I got an extra walkie here, so we can keep in contact."

He was such a fool to doubt the capabilities of a police officer. Especially one who saved his butt.

"Thanks!" Jason said, and upon noticing Johan's look of concern, continued. "I'll be fine. I'll be back even faster than you can say, err... I'll just be back real quick ok? Nothing to worry about!"

Jason turned to Kelvin and took out a small metallic tube from his pocket, which Johan instantly recognised as a fixed-on silencer. "By the way, Kelvin, fix this onto your rifle. Wouldn't want your gunshots attracting more of them eh?"

Kelvin eyed the silencer. "They're attracted to noise? How the hell did you figure _that _out?"

"I...just observed well enough..." Jason trailed off. His thoughts drifted back to the apartment, back to where Richard lay bleeding on the apartment floor. There was an aching sensation in his chest, almost as if someone had poked it with a needle again and again. As much as he regretted it, nothing he did would be able to bring Richard back.

He hoped the same thing wouldn't happen tomorrow night.

* * *

As soon as he heard the crying, Ashton raced up the stairs. The front door of the house was locked, he locked it himself just like any other time. None of those things would have gotten in.

Unless, there was already one inside.

He skidded to a halt outside the study room. The door was slightly ajar, and the smell of blood crept through the gap. Fearing the worst, but at the same time not wanting to, he pushed open the door.

Susan was huddled in the corner, her head resting against her knees as she cried. In the middle of the room lay the body of the maid. Bullet holes riddled the body, with blood trailing from each of them till it merged to form a pool on the floor. The small revolver that Ashton always kept in his house for safety lay beside it.

"Susan? Susan, hey, it's alright now." Ashton spoke softly.

As soon as the words came from his mouth, Susan leapt towards him and buried her face in his chest.

"I'm...I'm sorry, she just...came at me! I-I had no choice..."

"It's ok, calm down. Come on, let's get you away from this mess. Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Just...just a bruise, that's all..."

He supported Susan as they walked down the stairs, only to see the girl he saved earlier crying her heart out on the sofa.

_Whoa, everyone's suddenly crying on me._

Susan had begun relaxing a little. She noticed the crying girl on the sofa. "Who's...who's she?"

"I saved her in the supermarket and sort of, pulled her along with me back here." He crouched down in front of the girl. "Hey, hey are you alright?"

The girl looked up from her hands. Her eyes were red with tears, and she couldn't stop sobbing.

"I'm Ashton, and that there's Susan. What's your name?"

"I'm...Ni-Nicole." Nicole couldn't stop sobbing in between her words, making her sentence almost undecipherable.

It wasn't surprising. A girl of her age experiencing so much blood and death in one short instance was more than enough to traumatize her for life, not to mention he saved her when she was this close to getting scratched to death.

There were numerous scratch marks on her arms. While most didn't look severe, there were some that pierced deep into the skin, causing the surrounding areas to swell as it bled.

All this while, Nicole couldn't feel a single thing. Aside from the initial pain when that man began clawing at her, the adrenaline rush after that had paralyzed her nerves as she ran. Either that, or it was the cold grip of fear that swarmed through her mind, making her oblivious to anything else but her own safety.

Susan sat quietly at the kitchen table while Ashton tended to Nicole's wounds, her hands cupped around a glass of water. She simply stared at it, as if expecting it to suddenly spring to life and take her away to paradise. Anywhere would be better that here, but no matter how far she ran, she couldn't hide the fact that she killed someone, infected or not.

Somehow the outbreak had occurred simultaneously, coordinated to the point that it seemed impossible to be a natural occurrence. She heard the maid suddenly gasping and choking in the study room. She had reached out to place her hand on the maid's shoulders, only to get thrown backwards as the maid screamed and spun around, smacking her arm into Susan's face.

She stumbled backwards and fell over the table, knocking its contents onto the floor. She did not even have a second to recover, and the maid was on top of her, pounding at her with her fists without any remorse.

Her screaming did little to ward off her attacker. Somehow, by a stroke of luck, she managed to get her knee up and kicked the maid off with all her might, sending her crashing into the wall across the room.

The gun seemed to somehow materialize in her hand. Susan didn't even know she picked it up. She didn't even care where it came from. By the time she realized what she was doing, she already pulled back on the trigger several times, screaming in between each shot. The bullets pierced into the maid's body, sending her into an almost-graceful death dance as she fell backwards onto the floor.

The fear did not go away as fast as it came. Even when she saw Ashton standing at the doorway, even when she cried in his arms, the shuddering in her bones continued. She could still see from the ripples of the water in the glass she held. She hovered one of her hands in midair.

It continued to tremble.

A sudden bang on the kitchen window sent Nicole screaming and Susan almost falling off her chair in fright. The contorted face of an infected man appeared at the window, screaming and hurling gibberish at them as it angrily banged against the glass. Ashton was thankful he opted for increased security in his house. In Fairfield, one couldn't take the risk of being careless. His windows were made of reinforced glass, and the doors were held by steel hinges and further backed by a deadbolt and more sliding locks on the top and bottom of the door. It would take more than crazy, infected people to break through.

And hopefully, there were nothing else but crazy, infected people out there.

Ashton let Susan escort Nicole upstairs while he remained downstairs to ensure everything was secured. He closed all the curtains, switched off all the lights, making sure that nothing inside would attract any unwanted attention from the infected. Nicole's sobbing drifted down from the top of the stairs, followed by the soft click of the study room door.

_So the maid was infected too, but then, what about us? Could we also be...immune?_

A mixed feeling of relief and distress washed over him. True, he wasn't going to turn into some crazed assailant, but why should he be let off the hook when a million others weren't? It was simply not fair.

Then again, in life, everything is unfair. Ashton was thankful that he had learned it the easy way from young.

They spent the remainder of the day huddled in the corner of the bedroom. The body contact served as a soothing assurance that they were lucky enough to be alive, and yet, it was a painful reminder that they could very well be the _only _survivors, trapped in the middle of a world turned turtle. His house maid, a once gentle and caring woman, now lay dead in the study room, a sign that it could happen to any one of them if they even hesitated for even a split second. Ashton had simply did what he could and covered the body, whispering a short prayer for a person he barely even knew. The gun that Susan had used was now gripped tightly in his hands. For a moment, he wanted to just put the gun to his head and get it over and done with. Perhaps the white light at the end of the tunnel would hold more promise than being surrounded by infected.

Except it wouldn't be a white light. It would just be an angel coming down and saying he was fucked for taking his own life, before throwing him down into the bottomless pits of hell. At such a scary thought, he relaxed his grip on the pistol. Beside him, Susan and Nicole lay motionless as they slept peacefully, dreaming of a faraway paradise that Ashton hoped would come sooner rather than later.

**Hell's Hour + 1 day, 11:56PM**

Hanks Anderson had probably cursed way more within a single hour than he did in his entire life. Jason and him had dove literally head first into the hardware store when they heard that freaky shriek. It was nothing but an animal-like scream loud enough to ring in their heads. And now, they both were panting heavily among television sets and computer devices.

'Listen for the coughing', Johan had said. 'It means there's a Licker out there'. For one, Hanks still didn't know what the heck Johan was referring to when he said 'Licker'. And secondly, he certainly did not mention anything about screaming infected. It was already bad enough that they had to creep their way around the debris Metal-Gear-Solid-style to avoid confrontations, and now they had to deal with smoking and screaming infected.

"That's probably a different one." Jason whispered in between his panting.

"Well _thanks, _Einstein." Hanks replied. "They're all the same anyway- crazed, extremely angry, and _very _ugly!"

"Ugly? Thought you were first place in that category..."

"Fuck you."

"Heh heh," Jason couldn't help but chuckle. "alright, radio still there? Good, let's go."

Thus they continued to snake their way towards the supermarket. They had found it easier to sneak around the infected wandering around than they thought. All they had to do was practically tiptoe the entire way and just not be right in the line of sight of any infected. Hell, they could even just walk inches away from an infected, so long as the infected was facing the other way. And if any infected suddenly turned around, either of them simply dispatched it with their standard trained neck breaker.

They had also discovered, after multiple neck breakers, that the infection did soften up the body greatly. Their necks snapped twice easier than when done on a healthy person.

_Well, not that we went around breaking people's necks for fun, but hey, the easier they die the better right?_

Hanks was amused at the thought. Amused that he might be turning into a psychopath soon if they kept up this neck breaking business. As much as he enjoyed killing infected who got too close for comfort, he hated the feeling of putting his arms around a stinking, rotting piece of trash, even more so when he had to apply pressure to twist the head and severe the spinal cord from the brain stem. Their skin not only felt soft, but it was as squishy as a saturated sponge. He could almost hear the wet, squishing sound every time he twisted his arms.

After what seemed like 53,595 neck breakings later (according to his ever-reliable powers of estimation), the supermarket finally loomed into view. Hanks had never felt such happiness at seeing the big, albeit slightly trashed, letters that spelt Walmart. The lights were still on inside, but Jason found the main switchbox and turned them off so that they could move about in the cover of darkness. They entered through the back entrance and found themselves inside the long hall of the supermarket. Thankfully, there weren't that many infected inside Walmart itself. There were a few who were simply staring at the shelves, and others who were actually trying to figure a way to open packed food. Jason was slightly impressed at the mild resemblance that the infected showed. Perhaps infected do retain some part of their human memory after all.

But Jason didn't care. As long as they gnashed and bit at him, he would do them a favour and just break their necks, a silent and quick death. Or, in Hanks' case, he would bash them on the head with the back of his handgun, for he had most certainly gotten irritated with touching near-dead skin.

The frozen food were still in good condition, seeing as the power was still going, though Jason didn't know for how long, but they had nothing to cook food on, so, as much as they hated, only dried food and chips would have to suffice for now.

He suddenly stopped and rubbed his eyes. He could've swore he saw something red moving along the ground. He looked to where Hanks was hastily stuffing his bag with as many beer as he could. Maybe he was just tired.

There it was again. A straight beam of red light that darted around the hall for a mere second before disappearing, and then reappearing moments later. The first thought that came to Jason's mind was that someone was using a LED to sniper at them, and he instinctively dropped whatever he was holding and ran to where Hanks was, dragging him close to the shelf in the process.

"Hey, what the f-"

"Quiet! You see that?"

Hanks took a peek above the shelves and immediately saw the darting red light again. He let out a soft 'Whoa!' and ducked back beside Jason.

"Who the hell wants to snipe us down?"

"Well, glad to know you're on the same frequency as me. Wait, I think that may have been an insult to myself. But anyway, the aiming's too...chaotic, to be from a sniper rifle isn't it?"

Hanks thought for a few seconds. "Could be just a laser pointer, since if it was an LED-based rifle, he would've killed us even before we realized what hit us. A survivor signalling to us perhaps?"

Jason rubbed his chin, giving Hanks the one look he did not want to see.

"Ok, that was a joke. Don't take it ser- hey, where are you going!"

Jason retrieved his bag walked towards the entrance doors and pressed his body against the side, making sure to keep out of sight of any infected. The laser beam came from one of the houses directly across the supermarket. There was a good amount of distance between them, and a good amount of infected too. The beam continued to flicker from the second floor window of the middle house. Jason took out the lighter that he always kept (despite being a non-smoker), and flicked it a few times without pressing on the gas, producing short, bright sparks each time.

At once, the flickering beam stopped. For a few seconds, Jason had a sunken feeling that whoever was shining it left his back open to an infected and became an unfortunate victim of back-stabbing. However, a minute later, he could see the door of the house opening slightly, along with a figure of a man waving at them.

It was rather lucky that the street lamps were mostly off. Since the infection had happened in the early afternoon, and most probably occurred at the same time throughout Fairfield, everybody was too busy trying to get their asses to safety that the central power station was left unattended, and nobody was there to ensure the street lamps would come on at the correct time.

"What the, are you planning to run across to over there?!"

For the second time in mere minutes, Jason almost had a heart attack. Hanks' voice sounded strangely creepy when in close proximity, as he very well was right now, almost pressing his face against Jason's shoulder.

"Goddammit Hanks, do that again and I'll break your neck!"

"No, seriously, you're going to go to him? Let's just go and pretend we never saw him!" Hanks beckoned, his cowardice momentarily annoying Jason.

"We're police officers damn it, we don't leave anyone behind! You know that more than I do."

"Well, if you haven't realized, we've just been left behind ourselves." Hanks complained, and upon noticing Jason's sarcastic expression, continued. "By who? By God, of course. Oh, and the Army too."

"Right, and you forgot what these are for."

Jason held up what appeared to be a set of fire-crackers he had taken from the shelf next to him.

"You're faced with certain death and all you can think about is partying?!"

"Just watch and learn, asshole. We'll just go in there, stay for one day, then head back tomorrow night."

"Don't get too used to calling me that, Jason. If I ever turn, you'll be the first brain I eat."

"Oh please," Jason snickered while tying an extra length of string to the bottom of the fire-cracker. "If you turned, I'll make sure you're the first to get your brains blown out. Now get ready to run."

Jason waved the fire-crackers in the air, and upon seeing the main roughly understanding what was going to happen, flicked on his lighter and lit the end. As soon as the small flame was inches away from the cracker itself, Jason took a few steps into the open and hurled the cracker towards the side with all his might. The fire-cracker exploded into dazzling flashes and loud cracking sounds in midair as it fell to the ground.

Some infected had caught sight of Jason before he threw the fire-cracker, and began sprinting towards him while yelling nonsense. But as soon as the fire-cracker began making sounds, it was like a wave of magic swooped across the entire area. Every single infected in the area turned towards the origin of the sound and began running in that direction. As soon as the sounds began, Jason motioned to Hanks to run for it.

"Err, can we like, wait for all of them to stop running across us?"

"Those fire-crackers ain't gonna last forever, now COME ON!" And without a moment's hesitation, Jason took off like a mad dog straight towards the house, with Hanks swearing closely behind.

"You're mad! Did I ever tell you that? MAD!!!"

The infected were so engrossed in the exploding sounds that they were completely oblivious to the two normal humans running across them. Some simply ran straight into them, fell to the floor, got up and resumed their mad dash towards the bright lights. Jason had guessed correctly, in fact a little too well. The infected that were nearer to the fire-crackers began stamping on it, putting out the lights and sounds bit by bit. Getting rammed into by oncoming infected traffic wasn't helping in their sprint either. They stumbled multiple times along the way, and barely reached the fence just as the last of the fire-crackers died down.

A brief silence fell throughout the area, but was soon pierced by the unanimous nonsensical gibberish of dozens of infected as they focused their sights on the two humans who had eluded them.

The man at the door began firing at the infected who were too close to the two officers. Bullets whizzed past Jason's body, and he feared he was going to become a victim to fratricide. He quickly dismissed the thought and continued running, pumping his arms for full speed. This man was trying to save them, and he should respect that.

Jason reached the door just as the man stopped firing, whirled around and delivered a deadly side kick to the head of an infected who had managed to grab onto Hanks' shoulder. He could hear the loud snapping of the neck as the body went limp immediately, falling face first to the ground with an audible smack. He back stepped through the door after Hanks went crashing in, dodging another infected's swipe by mere inches, and the man immediately slammed the door in its face. There was a muffled grunt on the other side as the infected's face met hard timber, which, in any other circumstances, would have sounded extremely hilarious.

The man secured the locks on the door- all _four_ of them, much to Jason's surprise- before leaning against it, panting as quickly as they were. He didn't seem worried about the horde of infected threatening to break through, and it was evident in the fact that the door was barely even budging as the infected outside threw themselves against it.

All 3 men remained where they were as they fought to catch their breath. Jason was sitting on the arm of the couch, while Hanks remained sprawled out on his stomach on the floor, apparently enjoying the cool texture against his flushed skin. The man pushed himself off the door and introduced himself as Ashton.

"Damn, am I glad to see you officers!" Ashton exclaimed, barely able to contain his excitement. "I thought there was no one left alive!"

"Well, guess you thought wrong." Jason smiled. He too, was more than happy to see another fellow survivor. It brought a whole new meaning to the saying, 'The more the merrier!'. "I'm Jason by the way, that dog on the floor is Hanks."

"Fuck...you..." Hanks, still flushed from the recent adrenaline rush, simply held out his finger towards Jason.

Ashton laughed. He stood slightly taller than Jason, and appeared to be older than him as well. His olive green shirt was creased and stained with sweat which, along with the blue jeans he wore, gave him a rather odd appearance.

"Come on, there are two more upstairs who would love to s-"

"_Bzzz-zzz-t... Jason? Jason, come in."_

The static made all of them jump two centimetres, well, all except Hanks who was still lying on the floor. Jason ripped the radio off Hanks' belt, pressed the transmit button and spoke into it.

"Jason here, send." He flicked the catch next to the button to keep it on transmit mode, which enabled him to transmit messages and hear incoming transmissions at the same time, a very handy innovation from Kelvin's unit.

"_Jason, we got a problem here. That waitress, she was scratched by an infected before all this and didn't even tell us. Now she's-"_

"_Kelvin, her fever's suddenly getting- hey, what the fuck?!"_

"_Ueagh! Bluuueeaarrgghhh!!!"_

"_Holy shit, get back, GET BACK!"_

"_What-what the he-" "Oh my God oh my God oh my God!"_

"_UWOOAARGGHH!"_

"_Goddammit, shoot i-" "No wait, don't!" *BANG!*_

_*BOOM!*_

"_Ugh, yuck! What the hell is this stuff?" "Oh shit, they're coming... They're coming! Ahhhh, we're all gonna die!" "Could you shut the hell up?! Oh fuck, door ain't gonna hold. Everyone out the back door now!" "Tuckson, what the hell are you doing?!" " Grab anything you can, especially weapons!" _

"_Move, NOW! Jason, meet us at the subway, red line!" "Just go, I'll buy you all some ti-"_

_*CRASH!*_

"_Shit! ARGH!!!"_

"_Raaeaagh-wrraaiiigh! Hwueealgh! Waaeeyaal-eaag...raarrr....ea..rrr..."_

The rest of the transmission fell into static. The silence that followed did nothing but thrust a cold dagger of fear into everyone's heart. Jason found himself staring blankly into the eyes of the other two people in the room, clutching the small metal device in his hand as he fought to accept what had just happened.

The police station had been overrun.

* * *

A/N: Don't forget to read and review! And I apologise in advance for the long wait that is to be expected before chapter 4 is up. Thank you all for your understanding!


	4. Chapter 4: Just Keeps Getting Worse

Author's Note:

Shortest chapter thus far- only 11 pages in MS Word. Also, I have some rather bad news. I have exams on the 11th, 12th, and 18th of June, so I have to start my revision proper. As such, I do not think I will even begin to start on chapter 5 till after the 20th of June, which in turn means that chapter 5 will only be up a week or two after that date.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Left 4 Dead ideas, images and what not. I only own the original characters created for this fic. I also do not own Resident Evil or Starcraft, and you'll find out why I say this while reading through this chapter.

Thanks goes out to Lardcake212, Alwin, Nicole (nice work at the L4D competition!), and the rest of my friends back in Singapore!

* * *

**Chapter 4: Just Keeps Getting Worse**

**Hell's Hour + 2 days, 12:04AM**

Few words were spoken as the tall policeman paced back and forth. The dimly lit room did little to calm his nervous mind. Ashton had brought the other two women down, who introduced themselves as Susan and Nicole. But remembering names was the least of Jason's worries. He wanted to dash right out the door and back to the station, but at the same time he knew it was suicide. The banging on the door continued till now, and it didn't seem as though the infected outside were going to get bored anytime soon. He had heard Tuckson screaming at the end of the transmission. Despite crossing his fingers that Tuckson did manage to get to safety, somewhere, deep down inside him, there was a sinking feeling that maybe he did not even make it out the door.

He also did not hear Johan's voice throughout, and that made him all the more nervous. Maybe he wasn't in the room when it happened? Maybe he was out scouting for an escape path? Maybe...

_Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Jason. Why not think that maybe a UFO came out from nowhere and beamed him and everyone else to safety?_

Jason stopped mid-pace. He smacked his face with his hand and sighed. This wasn't like him. He already knew, in fact, he was _trained_ to know that, in his line of duty, during a situation of any sort, personal regrets and fear were the only two things that meant the difference between shooting, or getting shot. This was, in all honesty, the first time he'd actually panic.

But why shouldn't he, when the fate of his closest friend seemed nothing but bleak and in danger. If anything were to happen to Johan, it would be just like that time.

Just like that time with Richard...

"Jason, come on, calm down." Hanks spoke up from the kitchen. "You're not gonna accomplish anything by walking to and fro and making us dizzy."

Jason kept his hand on his face. Having someone telling him to calm down now would be the equivalent to asking him to not be human at all. Screw the training, screw the guidelines, everyone was entitled to at least a second of human emotions, no matter how tough or mentally conditioned one was. Slowly, he lowered his hand, staring straight ahead into blank space. He realized he was still clutching the radio so tightly, his knuckles were turning white.

It was just sickening to feel so useless at a time like this, and the worst part is the fact that crazy, zombie-like lunatics were the cause of it.

"Well, yeah, you're right." The words finally came out. No matter how much he didn't want to say it, it just simply floated out of his mouth. "We can't do anything now..."

"That's my Jason!"

"Think I can make it back if I jump out the window upstairs..."

Hanks nearly fell over while trying to get off from the chair. "Wha- Huh?"

"Dude, I'm kidding..."

"Like hell you were! You actually had that serious look in your eyes for a moment there!"

Nicole giggled from her chair, and then proceeded to look terrified when everyone in the room suddenly eyed her.

"Ah, sorry, I just...found that kinda funny, heh heh..."

Even she herself was equally surprised. She actually found the courage to take all the shit that just happened to her and laugh it off like it was nothing. Hours ago, she was wallowing in despair the entire time, doing nothing but simply nodding whenever Ashton or Susan tried to speak to her. Now, the addition of this nearly-colourful duo brought some hope into her. It told her that even in the face of death, or, in this case, angry zombies, there were still people who retained their personality, people who refused to succumb to the tidal waves of change.

And it wasn't like her to become so depressed. At least, not for the past twenty years of her life.

"Ah, you've finally decided to talk." Ashton was smiling from the doorway. "At last, I thought you had gone mute or something."

Nicole went red in the face. "Ah, well, must've been the sh-shock. Yeah, that's right, shock. I mean, everything j-just happened so fast, you know?"

"Err, your voice is still shaking." This time, it was Hanks turn to tease Nicole, making her face ten times more red than before.

"So...when will we be rescued?"

Susan's question was like a giant fan. The bright, happy atmosphere from the teasing and joking was blown away in an instant, resulting in yet another awkward silence in the room. But a simple question demanded a simple answer.

"...We don't know."

Susan stared blankly at Hanks. "What do you mean you don't know? Surely the military will send help in, right?"

"Nothing came onto our radios before all this- no instructions, no warning, not even protocols to follow." Hanks shot back. He was always irritated whenever other people kept thinking that policemen would know everything then and there. "So yeah, we don't know."

"The only person who might know is a soldier who was with us at the station, and now, they're..." Jason trailed off. Something inside him just didn't want to finish that sentence.

"Hey, come on, Johan will be fine. I don't think Kelvin's gonna let him or anyone else get mobbed by zombies."

At the sound of Johan's name, Ashton straightened up. "Johan? As in, Johan Ho?"

"Yeah, how do you know his surname?"

Ashton took a step forward, knowing that there was a lot of explanation he had to do. "I did a medical check-up on him few days ago, and if it's any comfort, you don't have to worry about him. He's immune."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by, 'immune'?"

"It means what it says, he's immune to the virus, and we all probably are as well." Ashton took a deep breath, the scientist side of him kicking in. "The virus initially spreads by air, even though it doesn't survive very long, but it's long enough to infect anyone else in the same room as the carrier. The infected host becomes a carrier before showing any symptoms, so they can sneeze or cough and bam, the virus spreads like freaking wildfire. The end result is as you can see."

"So anyone infected will become a zombie?"

"Err, yeah, you can say that. Basically they become very aggressive and will attack anything, but for some reason, an infected can differentiate between fellow infected and non-infected, which is something that I have yet to understand."

Ashton walked over to the window and peered outside through the curtains. "The end-result of the virus is very similar to rabies, hence it's name, Super Rabies."

"So then, why aren't we infected?" Nicole asked. Her grip tightened on the bandages around her arms.

"People have different genetic make-ups, and as such, possess immunities against certain foreign particles." Susan spoke up. "I guess we're lucky then. If you get scratched or bitten by an infected, the victim becomes infected as well, but that's not so much a worry for us. Still, immunity against the virus isn't going to prevent other infected from tearing us to pieces. Don't worry Nicole, if you were infected, you would've already began exhibiting coughing fits."

"Well, that's comforting to hear." Hanks replied sarcastically.

"So even if Johan suffers slight injuries, he'll still be fine as long as he can hold his own." Ashton continued, walking back from the window.

"Heh, easy for you to say."

Right now, Johan and the others were running around out there, surrounded by a hundred other infected. It would take a great deal of optimism to believe that he'll survive.

But he will survive, won't he? Johan had made it to the police station where Jason was, and better, he even brought a military personnel with him. To Jason, if that wasn't proof enough that Johan was more than capable of protecting himself, he wouldn't know what will.

"The plan's still the same. I'm going back for him once the rest of the infected decide to stop playing door-to-door salesman with you." Jason's resolve radiated from his words.

Ashton simply sighed. "I knew you were going to say that, which is why I should let you know- an infected doesn't give up on its target very easily."

Even now, after almost an hour, the infected continued banging on the door. Though it did not sound as violent as before, there wasn't any sign that they were going to be left in peace in anytime soon.

"Apparently so."

The next day, Jason was discussing with Ashton and Hanks the safest possible way to the subway. Nicole couldn't believe what she was hearing. She had already been this close to dying, and would not even be where she was right now if it weren't for Ashton. And now, they were talking about going back out there into the very clutches of hell.

"You wanna make us go back out there?" Nicole asked loudly, making everyone jump. "Uh-uh, no way in hell I'm stepping out those doors."

Ashton stood up and walked over to Nicole. "We don't even know if there'll be any help coming, and while I do agree that staying here is safer, who knows how long it'll take before any sign of help arrives."

"But we got plenty of food, the supermarket's just up ahead!" Nicole began getting desperate. "Please, Mr. Ashton, don't make me go out there. I-I don't want...to..."

Nicole began sobbing again as she leaned weakly against the wall. Even though it all within an hour, she had enough of seeing people die. As much as she wanted to get out of the city and back to the warm, gentle embraces of her family, her fearful side told her otherwise. She had no knowledge of self-defence, save for a small bottle pepper spray which probably wouldn't work on zombie eyes, had never held a gun in her life, and wasn't very good at running either. All the very things that, according to her experiences from watching zombie movies, were needed in such a situation, she did not have.

Showing confidence in everyday activities was one thing, but showing confidence in the face of death was a totally different story. Nicole told herself that it was simply stupid to compare being able to handle an exam paper to, say, being able to run from a dozen flesh-eating zombies.

Even so, wasn't the concept still the same? These people here with her, wouldn't they be depending on her portrayal of self-confidence? Instead of having to be baby-sit by someone, showing the rest that she was at least capable of holding herself in a tight situation would surely boost everyone's morale, wouldn't it?

The thought calmed Nicole down slightly, though she continued to sob to herself.

Ashton placed his arms on Nicole's shoulders. "Hey, it'll be alright. You've got two policemen here watching out for us, and I may not look like it but, I'm pretty good in handling a weapon too."

Nicole wanted to giggle, but it came out as a weird contortion of her sobbing. Ashton's smile left a soothing feeling in her body. Maybe, just maybe, they would be alright after all.

"Yo, doc." Hanks turned to Ashton. "Something's been bugging me since last night."

"Ask away."

"Susan said that different people have genetic make-ups, which explains immunity against the virus, but can the opposite happen?"

Ashton rubbed his chin. "Hmm, I don't know, never actually thought about that. Susan? Any ideas?"

"Well, it certainly is possible." Susan replied. "Like an enzyme, by changing the conformation of its active site, it performs a totally different reaction. Likewise, some genetic make-ups could favour the extent of the virus' effect on the host. Why do you ask?"

"Before coming here, we spotted one, no, in fact, two rather special infected. They could...do things, that wasn't seen in other infected." Jason explained.

"Yeah, one of them could shoot its tongue twenty feet out of its mouth and pull people out of their hiding places, which Johan so conveniently code-named, Licker." Hanks snickered slightly under his breath. Till now, the name never ceased to amuse him.

"And on the way here, we could see another that leapt from rooftop to rooftop." Jason remembered looking up into the night sky, and spotting a shadowy figure leap across the rooftops above them. He shuddered slightly at the thought of it possibly still waiting for them in the nearby buildings.

Hanks began wondering aloud. "Hmm, an infected that lurks on rooftops. Hey, I know, we can call it a Lurker!"

"In case you're wondering, Hanks, you ain't getting a noble prize for naming it."

"Aww, fun-spoiler. But at least it's easier than going 'Look out, infected-that-leaps-across-rooftops up ahead'."

Jason sighed and continued. "So, we're good with going through the sewers?"

Almost instantly, Nicole reverted back to her pre-outbreak character. She suddenly leapt up from the couch and squealed, which in turn caused Susan to scream in shock as well.

"What?! The sewers?!" Nicole's face became pale. "Oh-em-gee, please, anything but the sewers! It's so stinky and yucky down there, and we may even encounter ghosts, or even crocodiles! Please please please, I'll follow you all anywhere above ground, just not the sewers!"

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Whoa, what happened to you...? Weren't you just begging us not to bring you out? Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Um, well..." Her shock did a 180 degree turn and transformed into a flush of embarrassment that stained her cheeks red.

Hanks couldn't help but laugh. "Ha ha, looks like she's scared of something else other than vampires!"

"Hanks, I think 'zombies' would be a better term..."

"WHAT-ever, man!"

Nicole sighed. First it was an infected cum possible pervert who almost tried to rip her clothes off. Now, it was having to brave the dark, forsaken realm of Fairfield sewers. Things just couldn't get any worse.

**XXXXXXX**

It was supposed to be a simple routine- keep watch, eat, sleep, rinse and repeat. No one could have predicted that the shit would be flung into their faces that soon. Fate, as it seems, seemed hell-bent on giving them, well, more hell, as if a second of rest would be its never-ending torture.

Johan came down from his watch, yawning uncontrollably. He wanted nothing more than to just lie down and sleep the misery away. Instead, he ended up almost relieving a nightmare.

Wade was the first to notice that Alicia seemed to be in great discomfort. Despite having stripped down to a single layer of clothing, she was perspiring profusely as she tossed and turned about in her position. At some times she sounded as if she was moaning in her sleep, which, in a room full of guys, would have given all of them the wrong idea if they weren't being hunted by bloodthirsty infected. Wade leaned her against the wall and began wiping her sweat away. Somewhere along the way, he caught side of a small line of blood at the side of her shirt. He gently lifted her shirt slightly, revealing a small scratch in her skin that had already turned black. The area around the scratch was swollen, and there was pus oozing from the wound. Kelvin radioed Jason while the rest were at a lost as to what to do.

Seconds later, everything just went into chaos.

Alicia's soft moaning suddenly began getting louder, and transformed from a plain moaning sound into more of a gurgling groan. Her belly began swelling at an alarming rate, producing a disgusting, sloshing sound from within and sending a panicked Wade stumbling backwards. It wasn't just her belly either. Her limbs and face bloated up along with her belly. Her shirt tore from the immense size, revealing her now extremely saggy breasts, permanently searing a grotesque image into the minds of everyone else in that room. She, or rather, _it_, stood up and let out a loud gurgling howl, before attempting to advance to the nearest person, who so happened to be Laurence.

Laurence screamed when he noticed that bloated monster staring at him. "Goddammit, shoot it! AAAHHH!"

"No wait, don't!"

That was all Kelvin could say before Wade grabbed a handgun off the table and opened fire. The bullet pierced cleanly into the monstrosity's belly, and the next thing everyone knew, it erupted in a glorious fountain of greenish bile. The sticky substance splashed onto everyone, triggering many cursing and swearing as it clung to their shirts and emitted a strong, foul smell. However, personal hygiene became the least of their worries. Within seconds, there was a distant howling of hundreds of infected, almost as if they were drawn to the smell of the bile. They descended onto them as swift as vultures to its prey, throwing themselves against the door. The number of infected was so great, that the ones in front were merely crushed by the impact from the rest of the infected, and even the reinforced door could not resist the force for long. Already, the door looked as though it was about to be ripped off its hinges.

All Johan could register in his mind was Kelvin yelling at them to grab any weapon they can and run out the back door. The surge of adrenaline in his body made him completely oblivious to anything but his own survival. He didn't care about anything else, he simply ran. He hadn't known that Tuckson tried to barricade the door to buy them some time. He hadn't known that the door simply burst open, knocking Tuckson onto the ground. He hadn't known that Kelvin kept screaming for Tuckson even as the infected swarmed onto Tuckson's body.

He hadn't known that Tuckson continued to shout at them to run, just as he released his grip on the grenade.

The explosion was deafening. The blast wave sent all of them flying face flat onto the ground. Johan landed hard on his side, biting his lip as his hip met hard gravel. There was a numbness in his head as bits of concrete rained down onto his face. He didn't even know when the tears began flowing. Tuckson was dead, just like that. Just when he thought that nothing else could go wrong, someone else dies while trying to protect them.

Would he have done the same if he was in Tuckson's shoes? The absence of hesitation as he gladly took his own life, even if it meant buying everyone else a few extra seconds of advantage. It also meant that within that single second, he had to decide to give up on everything, on all hope that he would be able to live to see the next day. Would he even be capable of making that decision?

Kelvin was the first to recover from the aftershock, having already experienced it multiple times in the past. After hastily getting the rest on their feet, he drew his attention to their surroundings. As much as Tuckson valiantly sacrificed his life to buy them time, the loud explosion drew even more infected to the scene of the blast. Right now they were in a back road of the police station, which branched its way around several tall buildings in front of them. If they were surrounded here, it would put them in really deep shit.

"We have to move now guys, before we get spotted." Kelvin beckoned.

"Oh my God, oh my God! We're gonna die..." Laurence whimpered, much to the ignorance of everyone else.

Johan had to shake his head several times before the dizziness faded away. Wade was leaning against the wall and panting, while Laurence, as usual, was panicking and cursing away. There was something hard and metallic clutched in his hand, and looking down, he realised he had grabbed a rather large rifle in the confusion. The weapon's model eluded his mind, and he held it up to get a better look. It certainly felt heavier than it looked.

Kelvin noticed the weapon Johan was holding and spoke up. "Whoa, what made you think that sniping would be good in a time like this?"

"Sniping? This is a sniper rifle?"

"Yeah. That's a M98 Barrett, semi-automatic and holds 10 rounds. Seen a couple of them out in the field. Not that heavy, but still, of all the other weapons, why this?"

"Well, I assumed that the bigger the gun the better..." Johan replied, trying to hide his embarrassment.

"I hope you remembered to grab some ammo along with that..."

"Yeah, got two other magazines in my pocket."

"Err, guys, we got company." Wade said, pointing at the end of the road to their right.

A group of infected stumbled into their view. As soon as they caught sight of the four living survivors, they hunched their bodies slightly before taking off at a full sprint towards them. Johan heaved the rifle to his shoulder and peered through the scope. The glow from the burning station illuminated the targets for him to see, and without thinking any further, he simply pulled the trigger. The rifle jumped in his hands, recoiling hard against his shoulder, whereas the bullet soared through the air and pierced through several of the infected before stopping in the head of another. Those that were hit in the chest collapsed to the ground, but those that weren't continued advancing towards them, despite having one of their arms shot clean off the socket by the sheer power of the bullet. Thankfully, the rifle was fitted with a silencer as well, so the only noise that came out was a soft 'piu'.

"There's too many of them, come on, this way!"

"Ahhh! Help me, I'm gonna die!"

"Laurence, would you shut the hell up for a second?!" Wade snapped, effectively reducing Laurence's pitiful cries into mere whimperings.

They cut through some of the buildings with the infected hot on their heels. Soon, they found themselves running down the main road. If anything, this was nothing more than déjà vu for Johan. Any infected along the way were quickly put down by their gunfire. Wade had the handgun that he used earlier to shoot the, well, the Boomer, for lack of a better term, and another that he tucked into his pants as a reserve. Laurence, as expected once again, had nothing but his ego. Kelvin, on the other hand, was firing from the M4 assault rifle that he had, and had another semi-automatic shotgun slung on his back. If that was not all, he also kept a small firearm in the holster strapped to his right thigh.

_Truly an experienced soldier indeed, _Johan thought.

A loud coughing sound came from somewhere to their right.

"Licker!"

"Watch out!"

Kelvin jumped straight towards Wade and pushed him away. A split second later, a long, thick, rope that Kelvin only realised later that it was a tongue shot right past him, piercing into and shattering the glass door of the shop they were in front of. The tongue had barely scraped by his side, as indicated by a small slit in the fabric. Luckily, there was no sign of penetration into the skin. Johan traced the tongue-like whip back to one of the upper floor windows of a nearby apartment. He looked through the rifle scope, and spotted the tall figure of a Licker in the room's darkness. He pulled the trigger and unloaded three rounds into the Licker's chest. Its body snapped backwards as it let out a final hissing sound before dying, releasing a strange cloud from its body at the same time.

However, there was no time for feelings of self-achievement. More infected were running towards them from behind, and there were too many in front for them to fight their way through.

"Tch, we can't keep running like this..."

"Kelvin, over there!"

Johan pointed towards a large building across a soccer field. It was the Top End Fairfield Elementary School, perhaps the most prestigious elementary school in Fairfield. It had a student capacity of over a few thousand, thus the campus occupied a considerable amount of land. Even in the darkness, from afar, it loomed high over them.

They dashed across the roads towards the fence that surrounded the soccer field, shooting at any infected that got too close for comfort. As they were climbing up a truck that was parked beside the fence, Johan spotted a fat, waddling zombie amidst the crowd. Its features matched what he saw back at the station- big belly, big limbs, big target to shoot at. The Boomer, as he had mentally named it, kept getting shoved to and fro by the other infected as it ran, making it look like a live action pinball machine from afar. Johan calmly took aim with the rifle and fired a single bullet into the Boomer's plumb belly.

The top half of the Boomer's body disintegrated into bile and chunks of flesh with a wet exploding sound. As the bits of bile rained down, every single infected in the area diverted their attention to the Boomer's corpse, completely ignoring the survivors. They began licking the substance off the ground, and some were even biting the ones who were covered in the green slime.

Wade almost threw up at the gory scene. "Ugh, they _like_ that stuff?!"

"Hey, that might come in handy next time. When surrounded, shoot the fat one." Kelvin said. "Hurry up, the feast ain't gonna last forever."

They jumped over the fence and ran across the wide field. Ahead, the massive multi-purpose hall of the school towered high above them. It appeared that the entrance didn't seem to be barricaded, indicating that the hall was most likely empty. A banner dangled from the wall, and on it read 'Top End Carnival'.

_What a nice time to have a carnival..._ Johan thought. According to the date written on the banner, it was supposed to have taken place yesterday, if it weren't for the outbreak of zombies. It also was not surprising that no one had used this place as a hideout.

How could they? The outbreak struck swift and suddenly, leaving people with barely enough time to scream before getting mauled by infected. He was lucky to have been around Kelvin at the time it happened. If it was in another part of the city, he would've fallen into the same demise as the hundred other infected out there.

They burst through the double doors and into the hall. From the dim moonlight shining in through the doors, there didn't seem to be any infected inside, much to their delight. There were tables and chairs laid out throughout the hall, some were overturned and spilled their contents onto the floor. It looked like a tornado had swept through the area.

As soon as Kelvin shut the doors, the hall became bathed in darkness once again, the only light coming in from the overhead windows. He jammed a fire axe into the handles and secured it with yet another one, before turning to the group and heaving a huge sigh of relief.

"We're safe, for now."

Laurence didn't seem to be comforted one bit. "My G-God, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm g-g-gonna die..."

"Fucking hell, would you get a grip on yourself?!" Wade yelled.

Johan sighed. "Leave him be, he's beyond ho-OUCH!"

A pinch of pain shot through Johan's toe. In the dark, he had walked straight into a wooden table and kicked against its leg.

"Damn, can't see a fucking thing in here." Kelvin fiddled his way against the wall. "See if you can find a flashlight or anything that can get us to the opposite side without crashing over everything else."

"And how am I supposed to do that when I can't see anything to begin with..." Johan said, stumbling over a few chairs.

Wade was being clung onto by Laurence. "Oww, hey! Stop gripping at me like that!"

"P-p-p-please, I don't wanna die..."

"I'll kill you myself if you start spouting nonsense again, you useless f-"

"Quiet!" Kelvin hissed from where he was. "Listen."

The 4 of them immediately fell into silence. By now, Johan had felt his way deeper into the hall but still had no idea exactly where he was. Wade and Laurence were some distance behind him, and Kelvin was halfway in, leaning against the wall as he went.

From the opposite side, through the very doors that they were aiming to get to, came the sounds of heavy footsteps. The ground beneath their feet literally trembled with each step as the footsteps drew closer, accompanied by what seemed like deep, forced breathing. Occasionally a soft, animal-like growl would come in between the breathing, its sound amplified in the silence and confines of the hall. The footsteps stopped in front of the doors for a moment before continuing, but now it sounded like it came _into_ the hall.

Johan immediately fell onto all fours. His entire body couldn't stop trembling. It was as if an evil aura swept over all of them, instilling the very essence of fear into their hearts. Whatever that thing was, it was dangerous.

And now, it was in there, with all of them.

_Fuck, things just couldn't get any worse, eh..._

_

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_

A/N: Yup, things just couldn't get any worse for our characters, can they...? I apologise for the shortness of this chapter, and will do my best to improve the quality of upcoming chapters! Until the next chapter, please R&R!


	5. Chapter 5: One Victory Means Nothing

Author's Note:

Holy friggin' shit, I cannot begin to say how sorry I am in taking so long to update this! I got too caught up in enjoying myself after the semester exams and upon returning back to my home country for a short holiday, had spent practically everyday out of the house, only returning home late at night (Singapore arcades = epic win~). Well, now that I'm back to studies, I can actually have time to myself to continue writing up this fic. I sincerely hope this chapter is good enough to make up for the horrible waiting time.

Thanks goes out to Lardcake212 and his awesome Origins story. Don't forget to read his too! Reviews are more than welcome.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of L4D's products, only the OCs created in this story.

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**Chapter 5: One Victory Means Nothing**

**Hell's Hour + 2 days, 1:38AM**

_The convenience store was rather empty when he walked in, not that unusual for a Monday evening, the day that every working class citizen dread. A perfectly normal day, a perfectly normal routine for him, and yet something not so perfectly normal decided to make itself known._

_With a bottle of Gatorade and a bag of chips in hand, Johan made his way towards the cashier queue. A tall, burly man queued up behind him, and his intimidating built drew a quick glance from Johan. Strangely, the man didn't seem to be holding anything to pay for, and he had one hand in his vest pocket while he used the other to rub his chin. To Johan, he appeared to be just another addicted smoker desperate for another stick to blow on._

Ok, now that sounds pretty wrong.

_Laughing at the thought, Johan stepped forward to make his payment, when all of a sudden the man behind him thrust something small and black towards the cashier._

"_Gramps, I want all the money you have there, in this bag, NOW." The man growled._

_Johan found himself staring at a small pistol when he turned his head. He barely had time to register what was going on when the man wrapped his free arm around his neck._

"_Money in bag, move it move it! Everyone else on the ground, now!" The man began shouting around the store. "Nobody try anything funny. I see one handphone out and this kid's blood will be on your hands!"_

_Screams came from the few people who were still on the floor, slowly trailing down into panicked sobs as everyone dropped to the ground in accordance with the man's instructions._

_The man's arm tightened around Johan's throat, forcing him to instinctively clutch at it in a futile attempt to free himself. Suddenly, there was fear inside him. It was not just any sort of fear, it was the kind of feeling you get when you know your life is hanging by a single thread. And in this case, it was the simple pulling of a trigger. A routine process of buying refreshments after a badminton session suddenly transformed into a life and death situation._

_He shivered. There was nothing he could do. The fear overwhelmed him like a blanket and he began to panic. Overpowering a man that was clearly larger than himself was totally out of the question, and he even had a gun to top it all off. Right now, he was at the mercy of the robber. Within minutes, Johan's mind had reverted to a state of begging- begging to be let go, begging to not get involved, begging to at least see the light of another day. His breaths became faster, and it wasn't long before he found himself hyperventilating._

_Amidst all this, his elder brother's words floated into his mind. Teachings that he had almost forgotten with the passing of time._

"_Fear is what makes us stronger. Panicking in the midst of everything, on the other hand, is the sole reason that causes even the greatest of leaders to falter. Remember to always keep a clear head, Johan, don't let the fear get to you. There's always a way to fight it."_

_Slowly, the panic subsided, though the essence of fear remained. His brother was right, there's always a way to fight the fear._

"_Mister, please, I know you don't wanna do this, so ple-"_

"_The hell do you know what I wanna do?! Now shut yer mouth! Gramps, keep working."_

"_Look, you're not going to gain anything out of this, so please, just stop this."_

"_I said shut up! What are you, my mother?"_

Yes, that's it, keep him talking, buy some time.

"_The people outside can see what you're doing. It's only a matter of time before the police get here. What do you think the charge is gonna be for armed robbery."_

_The man shot quick, what seemed to be frightened, looks towards the glass walls. It became apparent that he had not thought this out thoroughly, and it did give Johan some form of encouragement._

"_Shut up! Just shut the fuck up you little twerp!" The man tightened his grip even further._

"_It's...not too late... Walk away..." Johan managed to say in between his choking and gasping for air._

"_I SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!" The man spun Johan around and thrust the weapon against Johan's forehead. Johan certainly didn't count on his plan of 'buying time' to suddenly take a turn for the worst. He simply shut his eyes tightly and prayed._

_The shrill sound of police sirens pierced through the still air into the store. Three patrol cars skidded to a halt outside the store entrance, and several police officers stepped out. They took aim at the man and began shouting commands at him._

_It finally dawned upon that man what he had gotten himself into, and he simply shot his hands into the air. Johan collapsed onto the ground, coughing furiously for air._

"_Francis James McAvoy, I never thought you had the guts to throw an armed robbery here." One of the police officers said as he handcuffed the man known as Francis. "You're gonna get a real long one this time."_

_Francis remained silent as the policeman escorted him into the patrol car. Moments later, Jason came running into the store._

"_Whoa, shit man, are you alright?"_

_Johan looked up at Jason and laughed sarcastically. "I've just been held hostage, what do you think?"_

The thought of being so close to death reverberated throughout his body. It was more than just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the few seconds of having the cold, hard piece of metal pressed against his forehead, images of his life flashed through his mind. To put it simply, he never thought he was going to make it out alive.

But in the end, he survived, didn't he? Whether it was by a stroke of luck or timely intervention by the police, he survived. Hell, just two days ago he even survived a zombie outbreak that happened right before his very eyes.

Cowering in fear was stupid. If anything, it would just get him killed sooner rather than later.

Johan clutched at his elbow. The shaking was still there, and he had to stop it before it got himself killed, which proved to be difficult given the current circumstances. Any sane human would panic if they found themselves trapped in the same room with some monstrous creature and they can't even see anything beyond a few feet away.

The thunderous footsteps continued deeper into the hall. Whatever sounds that came from Kelvin's and Wade's direction had stopped, although Johan could still barely make out Laurence's whimpering. Something did strike him as odd, however. From what Johan had seen, infected tend to be extremely noisy, especially when chasing someone. He knew that, he even had the honour of experiencing that first hand. But this one was different. It sounded like it was taking cautious steps, gently brushing tables and chairs aside and not flinging them ten feet into the air.

Were they docile unless agitated? It resembled the characteristics of wild animals, which is why they always say one should not make any sudden moves when confronted by a wild animal, or anything that would otherwise agitated it.

Johan took a risk and poked his head above the table he had crouched under. A few metres ahead, he could vaguely make out the shadow of a large, towering creature easily thrice his size. It moved across a beam of moonlight that shone in from the windows overhead, allowing Johan to see its full detail for a second. And that one second was more than what he asked for.

The creature looked like a bodybuilder who had gone crazy with steroids. Its shoulders were impossibly wide, its arms each had the width of a tree trunk, and what seemed to be its spinal cord could be seen protruding upwards from its back. Its lower body, apparently, did not grow in proportion to its massive upper half, and so it moved just like a gorilla- hunched over with two arms supporting its weight. Its head also remained the same size, like a small decor stuck onto a horrendous-looking support.

_W-What the fuck is that, a Brute?!_

For some strange reason, the creature reminded him of the Brutes from Halo, although this particular specimen would definitely win the award for most deformed looking Brute.

Its heavy breathes resounded across the entire hall. It let out a sudden grunt, which immediately forced Johan back into hiding. Getting around the Brute was going to be like hell, any sound he or the other made would most definitely draw its attention, bringing its wrath down upon them quickly and swiftly.

Or would it?

Johan took out the rifle's magazine and quietly unloaded one of the rounds before inserting the magazine back in. He took one last peek at the Brute, and then turned to face the side of the hall.

_Please, please, let this work properly._ Johan thought, before he tossed the small round across the hall.

Kelvin was in the midst of assessing his surroundings to the best he can when he heard the distinct clattering of a metallic object from opposite his direction. The creature let out another grunt, and then began making its way to the source of the noise. Knowing that it was not able to see well in the dark just like them, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Then it struck him. What if that sound was made by Johan accidentally knocking something over? Kelvin squinted in that direction. He could not detect any movement other than the creature itself as it thundered its way across. It continued pushing aside any obstacles in its way, and then Kelvin saw it- a crouching, shadowy figure coming out from under one of the tables behind it.

Kelvin smiled to himself before continuing onwards. He bumped into a row of tables joined together, so he got down onto his knees and began crawling under the tables. On the other side, his face met something hard.

_Damn it, of all things I just had to run into a partition._

While trying to get back up, the shotgun he had slung behind him shifted slightly, and its barrel knocked against the ground, producing a rather distinct bang.

_Oh, fuck._

Wade was cursing his luck. If being in the same room with a monster wasn't bad enough, he was being clung onto by something much worse. The proud, stuck-up attitude that he had seen back at the police station had now given way to the mentality of a ten year old. Laurence was the very epitome of panic. He held a death grip on Wade's shirt, making it pretty damn impossible for him to effectively move about without causing noise. If it weren't for the current circumstances, Wade would have simply fired one round into Laurence's empty skull to end both their suffering, and then fire a few more times just for the hell of it.

He only managed to cover a metre ahead after the creature got distracted by the clattering noise from the side of the hall. There wasn't much freedom of movement given to him thanks to the overgrown parasite that he had.

A single bang came from the opposite side of the hall, putting Wade's senses on high alert once more and triggering another onslaught of whining from Laurence. Johan himself, nearly let out a yelp at the sudden noise. He stopped dead in his movements, not wanting to make any sound that would compromise his position. The hulking Brute grunted again, before making its way to its new source of curiosity.

And Johan just so happened to be in its path.

_Oh shit shit shit!_

Johan clambered forward and dove under another table- thankfully, it was a computer desk, so its design helped to conceal Johan more effectively than a normal table would. But in his hurry, he had made quite a lot of noise. The Brute came closer and closer to his position, and stopped right beside the desk Johan was cowering under.

It was so close that Johan could literally smell it. He shivered where he was, under a desk, curled up like a cocoon. The smell that wafted into his noise was a putrid, disgusting smell, as if whatever that was giving it off had died years ago and was in the midst of decomposing. He opened his eyes and saw the Brute's legs- it looked completely normal, covered in a navy blue jeans and black converse shoes- and the horribly mutated arm resting against the ground right beside it, a huge, deformed mass with tiny protrusions at the edge, which Johan realised were its fingers. Its arms looked like it could easily crush just about anything, which only made Johan tremble more.

The Brute seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then, it continued its original path, pushing the desk aside. Johan struggled to continue crawling such that he remained under the desk, while trying to make as little noise as possible, which wasn't easy with a huge rifle weighing him down. For a split second, Johan regretted grabbing such an encumbering weapon in the first place.

Something seemed odd about this infected. Despite being that much more enormous, it was unusually quiet and docile. During their short run, Johan had noticed that infected would usually take off screaming and hollering at them, almost like they had reverted back to wild animals. Even the Lickers didn't seem capable of human speech. With an infected of this proportion, Johan had expected it to start smashing its way through any and everything in its path.

This particular infected, however, was as careful as a little boy with an ice cream in his hand. He wasn't sure if they only became violent when agitated, but then again, he didn't _want_ to know.

The Brute suddenly stopped moving, nearly causing Johan to hit his head against the table frame. Johan cupped his hand over his mouth, afraid that even his breath could catch its attention. In the confines of the hall, his own breathing sounded like a hurricane. He noticed the Brute swaying slightly, the sound of deep, forced breathing floating into his ears.

_Fuck, don't tell me it's..._

And then the desk he was hiding under disappeared entirely.

Time seemed to slow down around him. Johan locked gazes with the Brute, and seeing as how his eyes were already adjusted to the dark, he gained a clear view of its face- contorted, locked in a frown, with its lower jaw seemingly gone. He could not see its eyes, but he could feel it as clear as anything- two demonic orbs so devoid of life, and yet powerful enough to pierce into his very soul. If anything, the dangling tongue did give him a split second of humour.

The desk was firmly grasped in one of the Brute's hands, hovering beside Johan. It seemed to be just as shocked to see Johan as Johan to see it. Not knowing what to do, Johan said the most stupidest and out-of-place comment ever.

"Err... Hi?"

Kelvin turned around just in time to see the Brute effortlessly lifting a desk up, then, Johan's frightened voice wafted into his ears. From where he was, he could not make out the words, but he didn't need to. He simply whipped out his shotgun and pulled the trigger.

The sudden burst of gunfire almost shocked Wade into screaming (for Laurence, he happily did so), but what came next was even worse. A terrifying roar that shook the very ground he was standing on. The flashes of the shotgun illuminated the entire hall, giving him a clear view of the monstrous creature in the middle of the hall. He could see a small figure crawling away from it, and wasted no time in taking out his pistols.

Johan had to do all he could to stop himself from screaming as he tried to run towards the doors. The gunfire flashes momentarily blinded him, causing him to stumble on the scattered furniture till he ended up tripping over a fallen chair. Lucky for him too, for just a second after his face connected with the hard floor, a table crashed down right in front of him where he would have been if he hadn't fallen. Behind him, the Brute continued to roar and thrash about.

Once again, it struck him odd that a creature of such epic proportions was resorting to throwing objects when it could so easily close the distance between them. Not wanting to further question his continuing luck, he pushed himself off the floor and scrambled for the exit. Kelvin's figure came into view just as his shotgun clicked empty. Johan took up position near the double doors and took aim with his rifle, wanting to cover Kelvin as he reloaded, when he saw the Brute doing the unthinkable.

In one massive grunt, it literally leapt up ten feet into the air straight towards them. If it weren't for Kelvin's quick reaction in yanking Johan through the doors, he would have been one with the floor. The Brute swung one of its massive fists downwards just as it landed, smashing into the floor and throwing the both of them off balance.

"Holy shit, how did something like that," Johan pointed at the Brute. "Do _that_?!"

"I wouldn't worry about that right now!" Kelvin shouted.

The Brute sent another desk flying at them just as they clambered out of the way, before focusing its attention on Wade, who continued to pepper its back with lead.

"We can't leave them there! That thing's gonna kill them!" Johan protested when Kelvin grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hallway.

"We're not going to. In fact, we have to kill it, because my guess is that it's not going to leave us alone anytime soon." Kelvin turned back to Johan. "Listen, is there some sort of kitchen here? The kids gotta eat _something_ right?!"

Behind them, gunshots continued to ring out amidst sounds of wood splintering and furniture crashing. "Y-yeah, school canteen's a separate building in itself, should be beside the one we're in. Out that way I think." Johan pointed across the hallway.

"Alright, now listen carefully Johan, I need you to go there and turn on every single gas stove on at its max. We're gonna blow that son of a bitch to hell."

"Won't we just attract more of them with the explosion?" Johan blinked in surprise at Kelvin's idea.

Kelvin pondered for a second. "Well, we'll deal with that later. Now go! We'll lead it there, so you better be ready when we arrive."

He pushed Johan into a run before heading back to the hall, chambering rounds into his shotgun. Johan didn't look back and continued running. He burst through the exit doors and located the cafeteria directly in front of him. There were some stray infected wondering about in front of the building, all of whom were easily taken care of by his rifle. He was halfway across the courtyard when the sound of deep coughing drifted into his ears.

At that point, Johan began to think how stupid he was, agreeing to Kelvin's request without so much as a protest. What in the world was he thinking, sending Johan off by himself, out into the dark with nothing but his wits (and a very heavy rifle). He should've stayed and helped him, helped Wade, helped to kill that monster with the combination of deadly firepower.

From the corner of the cafeteria, a Licker stepped out. It gagged and wheezed when it saw Johan standing in the middle of the courtyard, then, with a loud, dry scream, it shot out its tongue with a wet, slurping sound.

Johan pictured himself being ensnared and dragged straight towards the creature, where he would meet his end either by being squeezed to death, or worse, eaten alive. A thought that sent chills down his spine. On instinct, he swung his rifle in front of him while jumping backwards.

The Licker's tongue wrapped around the entire of his rifle, and the both of them began to engage in a furious tug of war. Johan cursed at its strength, observing how he was slowly sliding forward as he kept his firm grip on the weapon. The Licker gagged its annoyance at the resistance, doing so much as to lurch its body backwards to reel in its prey.

A grin then came to Johan's face.

"Tough luck, dude." Johan said, and then released his grip from the weapon.

The 7kg rifle flew across the courtyard at a frightening speed. It smacked the Licker square in its face, throwing it off its feet and sending it crashing backwards onto the ground. During this, Johan wasted no time in making a mad dash straight towards it.

The Licker got up into a sitting position and appeared to be in a daze. It wheezed its confusion, but did no more than that as Johan leapt from his run and brought his sole down hard onto the Licker's face. There was a satisfying crunching of bone as its skull simply shattered under the sheer force. The next thing Johan knew, he was being surrounded by a weird smoke that stung his eyes and irritated his throat. The smoke had erupted from the Licker's body as soon as its brain splattered onto the pavement.

"What the fuck!" Johan swore amidst furious coughing. "How many cigarettes did this guy smoke?!"

Another loud roar came emanated from the main building, followed by gunfire and shouting. Johan recovered his weapon and entered the cafeteria. The spacious canteen was free from infected, something which Johan as greatly thankful for. It was difficult to take out zombies in close quarters when he didn't even have any form of small firearm.

Just as he entered the equally large kitchen, he heard the doors behind him burst open, followed by Wade's frantic voice.

"I hope this plan of yours works!"

"It will, now shut up and run!"

The distraction proved to be fatal. Johan suddenly found himself flat on the floor as something heavy landed almost on top of him. His vision blurred momentarily, and he then found himself looking up into a hoodied zombie that growled and hissed fiercely at him. All Johan could do was hold up his rifle for protection as the creature began to claw at his torso. Short, sharp pain shot through Johan's body as he fought to keep his rifle in place. The piece of metal was all that stood between his neck and certain death.

Kelvin entered the kitchen to a rather surprising scene. Johan was on the floor, under a very erotically-positioned, seemingly male figure. He didn't think that Johan was that sort of person, but it took him only a second to realise that it wasn't love the figure on top was expressing. He grabbed it by its neck and threw it a good few feet away, sending it crashing into a stove. It quickly got back up and snarled at Kelvin, only to be silenced the next moment with a well-placed bullet.

He helped Johan off the floor, but could barely say anything when a crash sounded from the main building.

"Oh sh... It's coming, it's coming!" Wade shouted from outside the kitchen.

The both of them exchanged short glances before running about the kitchen. They already knew what to do, turning any gas stoves they could get their hands on up to the max. Soon, the entire kitchen was filled with the choking fuel.

Wade came into the kitchen and his face immediately contorted into one of disgust. He shot his hand up to his nose. "Gee, nice plan you guys have here."

They all ran out the back door as the roaring drew closer. Kelvin stopped a few feet in front of the door and fished a lighter out from his pocket- his trusted companion that was able to satisfy many of his needs while out in the jungle. He felt a ping of sadness flow through him, knowing that he had to part with it.

_Well, at least this time you are going to do one hell of a job._ He flicked the lighter on just as the hulking zombie crashed through the wall into the kitchen. Tossing the lighter, he didn't even bother to see it fly through the door as he turned tail and ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

The entire kitchen ignited with an ear-deafening explosion, bathing the area with a bright orange glow. Night seemed to turn into day as the flames erupted upwards into the sky. Johan was, for the second time that night, knocked off his feet by the shockwave. He gasped in pain as he landed hard on his arms, the force of impact stinging the wounds he had sustained just moments ago. Soon, Kelvin was crouched beside him, checking to see if they were alright.

"No way, no fucking way..."

Johan turned to see Wade with a look of sheer horror written all over his face. Following his gaze, he finally knew why.

Like an exact re-enactment from Final Fantasy 7, the Brute lumbered out of the flames. Its body had been burnt to a blackened crisp, and many patches of skin had fallen off to reveal the inner layer of muscles, but there it stood, eyeing them with nothing but fury and anger. It held out one arm towards them and growled fiercely, loud enough so that it could be heard over the splintering sound of the flames behind it, as if it were warning them.

Warning them of its return.

Then it turned and took off into the darkness, the sound of its deep breathing growing softer until all he could hear was his own heartbeat.

Their journey out of the city had just become that much harder.

**Hell's Hour + 5 days, 1:35PM**

Nicole certainly didn't like the plan formulating between the rest of the group. Any sane person would know that it would be safer to remain in one area than to run around with zombies everywhere. There were even enough supplies here to keep them going for many weeks.

Many weeks. What would they do after that?

She mentally kicked herself for thinking that way. Any sane person would also know that if help were to come, they would have been rescued, or at least heard of it, by now. For Nicole, given her character, gained confidence in assurance of security, and so would rather they leave later than sooner.

The dilemma continued in her mind. Ashton noticed Nicole's weird expression as she sat there pondering. He crouched in front of her and spoke softly.

"Hey, you alright?"

Nicole jerked out of her inter-mental argument. "Wha-? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

"I know you don't like this but, really, we can't just sit here and do nothing. We don't even know if the Army is coming to get us or not, plus there's safety in numbers right?"

"Ha, yeah I know, I was just thinking about it." Nicole replied with a nervous laugh. "Still, I can't help but think that it's safer to just wait here. Who knows what we might run into out there!"

Ashton didn't look the least bit worried, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on how one interprets it. "Don't worry, whatever out there will still fall to the might of a speeding bullet. Besides, if there's any chance that we can be rescued by following these two policemen, I'm willing to take it. Nicole, will you be strong for us? Can't have you mentally breaking down on us along the way."

Nicole nodded. Of course, it was for appearances only. She has never fired a weapon before, let alone fire _at_ someone, no matter how much that 'someone' wants to eat her brains.

"Oh, one more thing." Ashton said, turning back to face Nicole. "Try not to scream. Infected are drawn to loud noises, so your scream could mean the death of us."

"What do I look like to you, a walking siren?!"

Ashton let out a short laugh. "That's comforting to hear! Good to have you with us, Nicole."

The past few days had been rather simple. Time was mostly spent gathering dried food from the supermarket and planning their route of travel. Without an exact map of the sewer layout, they only had to rely on the rough sketches seen in the city maps. Getting lost in the sewers could mean the difference between life and death. Thankfully, the sewer tunnels ran relatively close to the train tracks. If luck was on their side, they may even find a direct access to the tracks, which would make their journey a thousand times easier.

She turned and looked at Susan, who was sitting at the table and conversing with the policemen (well, questioning would be a better term). Nicole wondered if Susan felt the same way she did right now, fearful of this and that. She was years her senior, but humans are humans. Given the right situation even the strongest of hearts will break. For Susan, she didn't seem to have any form of worry on her face. To Nicole it looked like Susan trusted the policemen's decision, and she also knew that she would fight to survive.

Nicole wished she had Susan's strength. As of now, her fear of dying seemed to overwrite a majority of her confidence.

One of the policemen shot his hands into the air and cursed.

"Bah, are we even sure this map is reliable? It even says here it was printed ten years ago!" Hanks pointed at the bottom corner of the map. "A lot can happen within ten years."

"Well unless you can find us a more up to date copy, we'll just have to make do." Jason said calmly. "The library is just down the street, you can try your luck there. Oh and be mindful of the zombies along the way, they like to bite."

Hanks' mouth twisted a little at the remark, but he remained silent.

"So we all agree on leaving tonight?" Jason said aloud.

Nervous looks that screamed 'I want to stay here!' greeted him in return, but they all nodded their agreement. He stood up and stretched.

"Well then, we better get some rest."

"Um, one question." Nicole raised her hand as if she was still in a classroom. "How exactly are you going to distract the zombies again?"

Jason glanced at Hanks, who seemed to brighten up at the question. He held up a small, tube-like object that had a dangling string attached at one end.

"With this!"

Nicole shot a confused look at him. "And what might _that _be?"

"I managed to disassemble the smoke detector in the house and fixed it onto a small metal pipe. Then, I rigged it such that it will start beeping loudly at the flip of this switch." Hanks pointed at a the small, black switch fastened onto one side. "Inside the pipe, is enough gunpowder to set off a decent explosion. Hence I call it, a pipe bomb."

"Once it's lit, we have about ten seconds of grace before it goes off."

"So, basically we have ten seconds to dash halfway across the road, force open the manhole, and get all five of our asses inside before the zombies target us." Susan said matter-of-factly. "Well, that's one hell of a grace period."

"The explosion should kill off the infected in the immediate area." Ashton spoke up. For some reason, he didn't like using the term 'zombies'. It made him feel like he was in some twisted horror game, only this time, there were no extra lives. "So we just have to deal with the ones who didn't make it to the bomb in time to get blown up."

A textbook perfect plan. But, once again, nothing ever goes according to plan. Nicole felt slightly uneasy, but she remembered Ashton's words of encouragement. It would suck to be a burden to the team, even more so if she ended up getting everybody killed.

Night came, and Nicole found herself huddled in front of the door along with everyone else. They had tasked the two ladies to carry the supplies, and while the bag felt heavy on her shoulders, her adrenaline kept her on her toes.

She whispered to Jason. "You sure Hanks is an accurate thrower?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, he did put me in hospital once for throwing a smoke grenade right by my foot." Jason replied sarcastically.

Nicole didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She just grunted her reply and gripped the shoulder straps tightly.

"Any time now..." Ashton said as he looked at his watch.

True enough, a sudden beeping sound came from upstairs, followed a rather loud grunt. The beeping became softer as the pipe bomb flew across the road, drawing every single zombie in the area to it.

"Now!"

They all burst through the door one after another. Nicole was the second last to exit, with Susan in front and Ashton bringing up the rear. The cold night air washed over her as she broke into a run, almost tripping when a zombie sprinted right past her and very nearly knocked her over. She shot a look in the direction of the pipe bomb, and saw that it worked perfectly. All the zombies in the area seemed to be mesmerized by it, dashing towards it like old aunties towards freebies.

Hanks came out shortly behind Ashton, and seemed to marvel at his wonderful creation before running after the group. Nicole had barely entered the sewers when the pipe bomb exploded, showering them with loose gravel and body parts. Ashton quickly hopped in after Susan, while Jason and Hanks began taking up firing positions.

Already, the infected not killed by the blast focused their attention on them, taking off at a full sprint. Hanks pushed Jason down while he continued firing at the incoming infected. Another few shots, and his weapon clicked on empty. Taking it as his cue, he turned and began climbing down the ladder, wrestling to cover the manhole above him. The nearest infected dove forward and grabbed his shirt.

Hanks let out a slight yelp as he fought to avoid being dragged out. The infected was hissing at him and drooling profusely, using its other hand to scratch at his face. Hanks narrowly dodged its swipes and heard a gunshot from below him. The infected's shoulder simply severed from its socket, and its body flopped forward to the ground. Hanks ignored the gaping hole in its shoulder and pulled the manhole cover shut. Just in time too, for the sound of banging came immediately after he shut it.

He climbed back down and thanked Jason for saving him. He then noticed they were all looking at him with disgust.

"What? My plan worked didn't it?"

"It's not that..." Susan murmured, pointing at Hanks' left shoulder.

Hanks turned and saw the severed arm still clinging to his shirt where it had grabbed him. He let out another yelp of disgust as he pried it from his shirt and threw it aside.

"Oh geez, that's just gross!" Hanks cursed, wiping his hand on his shirt.

"Hey, need a hand?" Jason said, and then proceeded to laugh at his own joke. Hanks punched him lightly, and then began laughing himself. Soon, they were all laughing heartedly.

"Well, let's get started, shall we?" Ashton said, taking out a flashlight. Turning it on, it shone like a beacon in the pitch black tunnel.

Nicole took out hers and flicked it on. She shrieked when it shone onto a few scurrying rats. The sewers smelt like a horrible mix of rotten eggs and animal faeces, and the squelching sound of whatever shit they were stepping on only made her stomach churn more.

Still, she was thankful that they were alright. Even if it wasn't much, that short sprint across the road was still a victory in their favour. Her fear didn't seem that intense now. She felt comforted at the four other people around her, and became pretty sure that they would be able to make it out.

Little did she know what they were in for.

* * *

A/N: If things goes according to plan, I'll have the next chapter up in 2 weeks time. Once again, sorry for the extremely long wait.


	6. Chapter 6: Darkness

Author's Note:

Holy crap, I myself didn't expect to finish this chapter so quickly. This is what happens when you have an idea in your head and an entire day free of troubles. I'd like to thank all the reviewers so far for their wonderful reviews! Keep 'em coming!

Also, thanks goes out to Maya for her help in proof-reading this chapter, and Lardcake212 for his awesome story+reviews.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from L4D except the original characters used in this story.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Darkness**

**Hell's Hour + 5 days, 10:28PM**

Sewage was possibly the worst thing that he ever smelt before in his life. Then again, there's a first time for everything, and that included trekking through sewer tunnels.

Beads of sweat continued to trail down Ashton's cheek no matter how many times he ran his sleeve over his sweaty brow. It had been roughly an hour since they started walking through the tunnels, and so far they did not encounter any obstacles. The tunnels were free from infected, much to the survivors' relief. However, the lack of ventilation accompanied by the horrid smell of sewage gunk took its toll on everyone. Many a times the smell was just so bad, they simply stood rooted to the spot and cursed their annoyances.

It also didn't help that there weren't any signs or indications of where the hell they were. If the winding sewers weren't already bad enough, the narrow walkways that branched out from the main tunnel only served to confuse their sense of directions. He was afraid of what might happen if they got stuck in here longer than they expected.

_Die by infected, or die by suffocation and starvation. Hmm, nice choices..._

They eventually came upon a small room- possibly a storage and rest area for sewer workers- and were more than happy to plop themselves down at various corners of the room to catch their breath.

Jason and Hanks opened up the map and began trying to pinpoint their location. Ashton simply leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. You could lift heavy weights and run long distances by going to a gym regularly, but it's a totally different story when you're doing that late at night. A man's gotta sleep when a man's gotta sleep. Besides, his knew his work took up too much of his time for him to maintain his gym schedule.

Thoughts about his work drifted into his mind. He remembered his research, his conversation with Susan that night, that arrogant son of a bitch at the parliament building. His once normal days had suddenly transformed into struggles for life and death. He began to wonder if the same outbreak had reached his family's region.

"Hey, you alright?"

Ashton grunted and opened his eyes. Susan was sitting opposite him and holding out a bottle of water. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Must have drifted off a bit."

"Nice try, Ashton. I know a worrying look when I see one." Susan snickered.

"Ha ha, can't hide anything from you, can I!" Ashton let out a short laugh as he accepted the bottle. "I was just thinking about all this. More importantly, about my family. I wonder if they're ok..."

"Oh don't worry about them. If you can survive a zombie outbreak, I'm pretty sure they can too, _especially _your father. Besides, nothing matters if you end up dead, so don't get too distracted, you hear?"

Ashton eyed Susan with surprise. "Whoa, since when did you become the motivational type?"

Susan tossed a rock at him in reply, and the both of them shared a short laugh after that. Her words had much truth to it. He shouldn't get distracted and focus more on getting his ass out alive. If his family survived, maybe then he could go brag to his father about his experience of being around a million feral infected.

Fairly hydrated, they continued through the rest area and resumed their trek through the sewer tunnels. Every now and then, Jason and Hanks would get into a slight argument of which direction to go, much to the amusement (and annoyance) of the rest.

"Dude, I'm pretty certain we have to go left." Hanks retorted. "Haven't you heard of 'when in doubt, head left'?"

"Enough with your out-of-the-blues sayings. We've been going down this tunnel right here, so by orientation it's a right turn."

"No, you've got it all wrong. We haven't been going down that tunnel, we've been going down _this _tunnel!" Hanks pointed at the map.

"Are you sure? Because we-"

"_Quiet!_"Ashton hissed.

The bumbling duo fell into silence, both of them giving Ashton the 'what the fuck?' look. Ashton stared off into the darkness. He was sure he heard something...

There it was again. This time all of them heard it- the soft, haunting moan that echoed down the tunnels. It was creepy enough to make the hair on the back of Ashton's neck stand on end.

"Someone's still alive!" Nicole whispered, as if afraid that speaking too loudly would bring down the roof.

"You think?" Hanks replied. "That's gotta be one freaky survivor..."

"Well, we won't know for sure until we check it out, right?"

Hanks waved his arms forward. "Be my guest, mi' lady."

Nicole simply answered him with the magical finger, much to Ashton's surprise.

"She's right, we won't know for sure until we investigate. Besides, he or she might be injured, or may even be a child to make a sound like that." Jason said. "Come on, sounds like it's coming from this way..."

"Excellent excuse to go right, eh Jason?"

"Why, of course." Jason replied, giving Hanks an extremely spastic smile and the thumbs up.

The moaning grew louder and louder with each step. The tunnel seemed to amplify it, making it sound as if they were surrounded by a thousand moaning ghosts. Nicole shuddered heavily, clearly evident in her trembling hands (and flashlight). Ashton, on the other hand, seemed totally unfazed by the ghostly sound. He had too little time to worry about ghost stories during his adolescence. Still, this _was_ the first time he ever heard something so haunting, and as with all first-timers, the sound just creeped him from the inside out.

Their flashlight reflected off a metal door in front of them, the crying clearly audible from behind it.

"Over there..." Ashton whispered.

Jason only took a step ahead when his flashlight began flickering a little, before going out entirely. The same went for the rest of them.

"What the hell?" Nicole knocked the flashlight against the palm of her hand. "Didn't we start with full batteries?"

"We did, it should've lasted longer than a day." Ashton twisted the battery compartment open and reached in the remove the batteries. He hissed as a sharp pain shot through his fingertips.

"What's wrong?" Susan asked.

Ashton waved his hand in the air to try and relieve the pain. "Ow, dammit, electric shock."

"Great, so now we have to communicate with this creepy survivor in the dark. Fan-tastic." Hanks threw his arms into the air in frustration.

"Wasn't our fault the flashlights went out. Come on, let's check it out."

As they approached the door, a distinct, buzzing sound became apparent. Ashton shook his head slightly, thinking that maybe it was just his brain acting up from exhaustion, but realised that it wasn't just him. Hanks and Nicole were rubbing the insides of their ear, and Susan had a weird look on her face.

"I'm guessing you all are hearing the same thing?"

"Yeah, how weird is that?" Nicole said, one finger still in her ear.

"This is getting stranger by the minute..." Jason reached and gripped the door knob. He let out a soft yelp and drew his hand back. "The fuck?"

"Electric shock from the door knob?!" Hanks asked.

"Yeah. You thinking what I'm thinking...?"

"Um, _no_, but I'm guessing we're in some sort of ionised magnetic field?"

"How is that even possible?" Susan spoke up. "Things like that only happen in extreme thunderstorms or produced by machines, both of which are not taking place here, isn't it?"

"Unless, whatever's inside is causing all of this..."

As Nicole's voice trailed off, they all exchanged looks of uneasiness. Jason was right about all this becoming stranger by the minute, and something inside Ashton just screamed out 'No, don't go in there!'.

Nevertheless, Jason wrapped a piece of cloth around his hand and twisted the doorknob. He pushed the door open slowly and half-crouched his way in, followed closely by Hanks. Inside, the dim red glow of an emergency sign illuminated the interior just barely enough for him to see where he was stepping. He could clearly make out the shadowy figure of a woman at the furthest end. She was lying on the ground, and seemed to be making long, crying moans.

The buzzing in his head was even terrible now. Everything else seemed to be spinning as he tried to keep his balance. He shook his head a few times, and held his weapon out.

"Hello?"

The woman let out a muffled gasp, and looked up from the floor. Her back was facing them, so he still couldn't see her face.

"It's okay. You're gonna be okay, we're here to help y-"

She turned her head and began to growl. The very sight of her face froze Jason's blood and made his heart leap upwards into his throat. Her face was the victim to severe anorexia- extremely thin and bony, with depressions around her eye sockets, making it feel as if Jason was looking at a skull. Her eyes were glowing a deep yellow, _literally_. She began to stand up slowly, slightly raising her hands that had long, elongated nails extending from each finger.

_Claws..._

"Holy... Jason get back, _get back_." Hanks hissed as quietly as possible, already backing up towards the door.

Jason followed, not wanting to be at the receiving end of those claws. What he didn't count on, was the large, garbage can right behind him. His foot collided against it as he walked backwards, sending it crashing to the floor with a loud bang.

With a loud, piercing scream, the woman dashed straight towards Jason. Her hands were held high above her head, and she swung one down just as she got nearer to him. Jason, still stumbling over the garbage can, could do nothing but raise his arm in protection. Her sharp claws slashed across his forearm, and with such an impact it sent him sprawling to the floor. He clutched his arm in pain and could feel a steady stream of blood oozing through his fingers.

The woman stood above him and held both her arms high. She howled at him, determined to utterly destroy the source of her disturbance, when a large object connected with her face and sent her flying across the room. Jason turned his head and saw that Hanks had taken the very garbage can he had tripped over, and swung it with all his might straight into the woman's face.

Even then, that did not stop her. She was quick to stand back up and dashed towards Hanks. He simply took out his weapon and began firing at her frail body. With his one good arm, Jason did the same.

The bullets peppered into her body, piercing her delicate skin and slowing her advance. One good shot from Jason and her right knee exploded, causing her to collapse forward. Blood oozing from multiple gunshot wounds, completely incapacitated, and yet she continued to drag herself forward with her arms, albeit at an extremely slow speed. Her growls and hollering gradually died down, now sounding disturbingly like a normal woman's cry.

Hanks walked up to her, muttered a single word to himself, and then pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced through her forehead neatly. Her head flopped down onto the floor and her body went still. As soon as the last breath escaped her mouth, everything around them seemed to buzz into life. The overhead lights in the room flicked on, along with all of their flashlights. It was the same outside- the tunnels were now brightly lit. Even the buzzing in their ears cleared entirely.

"Damn, so _she's_ the cause of the lights going out?! What is she, Storm?" Hanks said, still looking down at the motionless body.

Ashton could only guess.

Susan hastily went about trying to patch Jason's arm. He cursed in pain as the medicated gauze stung his wound like fire, and earned a glare from Susan fierce enough to stun even a lion into silence.

Hanks and Ashton knelt over the body of the woman. Apart from the red stains of blood, her entire body was as pale as a ghost. She was clad in nothing but what would seem as a ragged sports bra and an equally torn underwear. Her hair had the same matching colour as her skin, and her body was as thin as paper.

"Hmm, another special infected to add to the list, eh doc'?" Hanks muttered.

"Yeah." Ashton replied. "And please don't call me 'doc'..."

Nicole thought she saw the reflection of a small gun jutting out from under a stack of newspapers. She walked over and picked it up. Never having held a gun before, it felt heavy and, honestly, a little frightening as well. She was about to announce her discovery when a series of scribbling on the wall in front of her caught her eye. Her eyes darted back and forth as she skimmed through it, and immediately, a wave of depression surged through her body.

_It's over. It's all over. They were supposed to be dead, and yet they continue to walk around without a soul. My son...oh my God, my own son. I cannot ever forgive myself. No mother should ever have to bury her own son._

_It's inside me now, I can feel it eating away at my soul, corrupting my very existence. There's no hope left in me, no paradise awaiting me departure from this world, not after what I've done. Please, anyone who finds me, put me to rest. Josh, I'm so sorry...so...sorry..._

Nicole turned back to look at the woman's body. Was it alright to feel sympathy for her? In her struggle for survival, she probably did many unforgivable things, maybe even turned this very gun against her loved ones. No amount of regret could ever make one forget such an experience. Now, strangely enough, the woman's mouth seemed to be smiling. Perhaps she finally found peace in death.

A single tear trailed down Nicole's cheek, and she hastily wiped it away on her sleeve. Ashton noticed Nicole busy wiping her face, and he walked towards her.

"Hey, you alright?"

She looked up at him. Her eyes were slightly red, and Ashton thought that she was just tired.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Look what I found."

Nicole held out the gun that she picked up, seemingly offering it to Ashton. Ashton laughed and gently pushed it back towards her.

"Ha ha, it's your discovery, you should keep it. Never know when it might turn out useful."

Nicole seemed slightly surprised. "But I've never held a gun before. Hell, I don't even know how to work one."

"It's easy, here let me show you." Ashton said, taking the gun from her hands. "You reload by ejecting the magazine like this, and then pushing the new one in like this. Then, just cock the weapon back like this, and flick the safety on right here when you don't intend to fire it. Oh, and never point it absent-mindedly at anyone you don't intend to shoot at."

He chucked the weapon back into the hands of a rather bewildered Nicole. "Wow, you sure make it look easy. To be honest, my first impression of you was that you've never fired a weapon before either. Boy, was I surprised when you fired that gun that day."

Ashton let out a dry laugh. "I...have my sources."

Images flashed through his mind- brief flashbacks of an experience he didn't quite want to remember. A gun on the ground, the body of a man his senior lying in a pool of blood, the expression of rage on his father's face, it was all too familiar. He shook his head slightly and turned away, leaving Nicole to gawk at her newfound firearm. Till this day, the image remained in his head, burrowing deeper into his memory. It seemed like he wasn't going to forget it anytime soon...

"There you go, all set." Susan said, smacking Jason on the shoulder. He let out a forced 'Ow!' which snapped Ashton back to reality.

"Alright, guess we better get going then." Hanks said as he walked to the door.

"Hold on." Nicole said. The others turned to stare at her as she dug out a large, thick cloth from the corner and covered the woman's body with it. "Ok, let's go!"

Not wanting to question her reason for doing that, the rest simply filed out the door one after another. Nicole shot a last glance back into the room before closing the door.

_Rest in peace, Bruja..._

With the sewers now nicely illuminated, they didn't have to use their flashlights and also did not have to worry about suddenly finding themselves knee-high in sewage. Once, they had come across the body of a man slumped against the wall, a single bullet-hole in his forehead. The small firearm became a nice addition to the group (especially to Ashton's hands), and to their amazement, they even found some spare ammo for their pistols jutting out of the man's pocket.

After walking through another workers' resting room, they finally found themselves in a large, massive room that seemed to hint it was where the sewage treatment took place. The path ahead became a meshed walkway hanging above another room below that had its wall lined with machines. The walkway seemed to split into three other directions in the centre of the room- two leading into narrow walkways, whilst the third led upwards to another platform with a door. A huge container filled with sewer water occupied the other half of the room, and currently it was right underneath them.

"At last!" Hanks exclaimed, walking up to the sturdy metal door. "I was beginning to get tired of this place."

"We didn't find any entrance into the subway, but ah hell, we could all do with some fresh air." Jason said, much to the relief of everyone.

Imagine their disappointment when Hanks continued walking after turning the doorknob, only to walk smack into it. He cursed and rubbed his nose. Jason gripped the doorknob and tried to turn it, but realised that it was locked. A small keypad was embedded in the wall beside it, and there was a rather distinct circular depression underneath it.

"Search around, there should be something that can tell us what keys to input, I hope."

A few minutes into searching, Nicole called out to them from the nearby table, several documents clutched in her hand.

"Err, guys? You're not going to like this..."

"What's wrong? Please tell me it mentions a key somewhere in there."

"Well, sort of. Take a look at this." Nicole handed the papers over to Jason.

_TO ALL STAFF OF THE FAIRFIELD SEWAGE TREATMENT ASSOCIATION:_

_Lately there have been many unauthorised personnel using this path as a means of travel. For all we know, they could be thieves, runaway criminals, or worse, terrorists. As such, we have decided to replace the exit door with a more secured one. It can only be opened through one of two ways: a password that has already been sent to all your emails or, the more 'traditional' method if you've somehow forgotten the password, is to place the two pieces of the circular emblem into the recession beneath the keypad, which can be found in the respective manager's offices._

"Oh bullshit..." Jason muttered. "Seems like we have to go treasure hunting."

"Good thing they gave us more than one map of this area." Nicole said, ruffling through the rest of the documents on the desk before holding up two similar maps.

"Looks like we gotta split up then. Hanks, you alright with taking Ashton and Susan?"

"Aww, but I wanna go with you, honey..."

"Shut it, and even if I were gay, you're definitely not my type."

"Ooh, that hurts~"

Not wanting to endure Hanks' sarcastic remarks any further, he shooed them into the walkway leading away from the container of water, while he and Nicole entered the walkway closer to it.

"Well, guess it's just you and me. For now, that is."

"Ha, yeah..."

**XXXXXXX**

Several doors lined the brightly lit walkway, leading into various different rooms. The walls were painted brown, but had already faded with age, giving them a very depressing feel to the area. Occasionally they would open a door and have an infected dash straight into their faces, but other than that, their search went rather smoothly. They came upon the mess area along the way, and gladly satisfied their grumbling stomach with various sandwiches still inside the refrigerator.

"Thank goodness we came this way!" Hanks said through the food in his mouth.

"Not so thankful to have _you_ around. You ate half the sandwiches in the fridge!" Susan scolded. "How are we gonna have enough for Jason and Nicole?!"

"Oh, don't worry about them, they're sure to chance upon something edible." Hanks waved Susan's comment off, earning him one of her feature glares.

They stuffed the remaining sandwiches (not a lot left in the first place) into a bag and continued on. Soon, they came to a door labelled 'Manager'. Hanks pushed open the door and stepped in, followed closely by Ashton and Susan.

The smell, and sight, was just so horrible that they felt as if the food they just ate were about to come right back out of their mouths. Several severely decomposed bodies were piled against one side of the room, and there was the body of a man slumped over on the table beside. A small knife lay beside his head, and the pool dried of blood that had formed under the chair clearly originated from the large gash in the man's wrist.

Ashton did his best to ignore the smell, and approached a small cabinet that hung on the wall. There was a bloodstained hand mark on it, and on the floor were three golden keys. The other two walked up to him just as he picked them up.

"Find something?" Hanks asked.

Ashton turned the keys over in his hand. "Yeah, though I'm not sure if it's useful or not."

The keys were golden in colour, but a small coloured gem set into its head made each of them different. There was a blue, a red, and a green one, each on a different key.

Susan bent down and peered at a small plate set beneath the cabinet. She read the words out loud.

_Place in order of element._

_Pascal. Mount Krakatoa. H__2__O + NH__4__NO__3__._

Three small keyholes were set in the cabinet, clearly instructing them what to do. It was only a question of how.

Hanks smacked the palm of his hand against his forehead. "Oh God, a puzzle at a time and place like _this_?!"

Susan turned to Ashton. "Do you think the 'element' refers to the Periodic Table of Elements?"

"I highly doubt so. I mean, Pascal isn't an element, and Mount Krakatoa is a volcano."

Susan thought for a few seconds, and then it hit her. "What if it's referring to the traditional elements of nature? You know, fire, water, wind, earth, and all that?"

"That does make more sense than the Periodic Table one." Ashton rubbed his chin. "In fact, it makes a hell lot more sense!"

He took the green-gem key and inserted it into the first keyhole, followed by the red-gem key, and finally the blue gem-key. As soon as he set in the last key, all three keys turned in unison and the cabinet door sprung open, revealing a shiny, crescent-shaped emblem.

Hanks still looked rather dumbfounded as Ashton pocketed the item. "Err, care to explain what just happened?"

Ashton turned to Hanks, seemingly shocked. "You still didn't figure it out? It's actually really easy. Pascal is the SI unit for pressure, and differences in pressure causes movement of air, thus wind, represented by green, for the first one."

"Mount Krakatoa," Susan continued. "Is, well, _was_ a volcano that sank the entire island it was on when it erupted. Lava from volcanoes burn anything in its path, hence fire, typically red, for the second one."

"Last one is tricky, so I wouldn't blame you for not knowing. Mixing water and ammonium nitrate is an endothermic reaction, meaning it takes heat energy from its surroundings, so the surroundings become colder. Cold is represented by blue, so blue key for the last one." Ashton finished it off.

"I...see..." Hanks muttered. "Remind to go take some classes once this is all over."

"Gladly." Was the reply from the other two, before they left the room and made their way back to the treatment area.

**XXXXXXX**

"You know, I just had this strange feeling that Hanks is probably in this exact same situation and saying about how lucky he is and blah blah blah, finally ending with how we would find ourselves something edible while they indulge themselves." Nicole said, reaching into the container and taking out her twentieth cookie.

"Wow, I'm shocked. Barely a few days and you already know him better than I do!" Jason remarked, and tossed another biscuit into his mouth.

Nicole tried to laugh but almost ended up choking on her cookie. She hastily drank several gulps of water before setting the cookie jar down with a sigh.

"Whoo, that was good. I'm feeling better already!"

"Hell yeah, better than canned stuff." Jason grabbed a handful of biscuits and shoved all of them into his mouth before standing up. "Well ghen, we wetter ghec ghoeing."

Nicole just narrowly dodged a scrap of biscuit that shot out of Jason's mouth as he struggled to speak, and gave him a disgusted look before grabbing her own things. She glanced back at the jar of cookies with a sorrowful look. Cookies were one of her favourite snacks, and having a jar all to herself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse did boost her spirits by a thousand points.

They continued down the hallway, tip-toeing past a room every time they heard some sort of moaning or grunting coming from within. They finally entered the spacious manager's office, and in front of them was a small pedestal with a square-shaped depression in it. Beside it lay five small statues, and behind it was a small cabinet set against the wall. Jason tried to open it, but he cursed when it was locked.

"Great, another lock in my face."

"Hey, check this out." Nicole said, pointing to a small golden plate on the pedestal just beneath the depression. She bent slightly over and read the words out.

_Offer up the being that bestows unity upon those fit for each other._

"Shocking, a puzzle." Jason said sarcastically.

He turned and looked at the various statues laid out beside the pedestal. At one glance, they were all statues of angels, but on closer look, each carried its own instrument: a harp, a spear, a heart-shaped letter, a bow-and-arrow, and a rose.

"Any idea which one of this is the correct one?"

Nicole didn't even reply. She grabbed the statue of the angel holding the bow and arrow and slammed it down against the depression. There was a distinct 'click', and the cabinet door swung open. An oval-shaped emblem greeted their eyes.

"Come on Jason, never heard of Cupid?" Nicole smiled while stuffing the emblem into her bag. "They say when Cupid shoots its arrow into a person's heart, they will immediately fall for the one they love, hence 'bestows unity upon those fit for each other'."

"Sorry, I don't exactly dwell into mythologies that much. Not with this by my side." Jason held up his firearm.

Nicole rolled her eyes. "Whatever, come on, let's head back."

"Yes ma'am!"

As they stepped back into the huge treatment room, they could see Hanks and the rest approaching from the other walkway. Nicole's eyes wandered off around the room as they walked towards the intersection, finally coming to rest on a large log in the container of water. She stopped, causing Jason to turn around.

Was that log there in the first place?

She got her answer when that 'log' sprung to life and lunged itself straight towards them. It opened up into an enormous jaw lined with pointed teeth, accompanied by an extremely loud growl. Nicole's was too stunned to react, however she felt something heavy push against her back, and the next thing she knew, both Jason and herself were falling down into the room below.

Ashton could not believe what he just saw. One moment Jason and Nicole were just standing there, the next moment they were both on the floor of the room beneath them as a large creature sprung out from the water and snapped its jaw at them, causing that entire portion of the meshed walkway to collapse. Thankfully, the foundations were sound, as the walkway the three of them were on still held.

"What the fuck, we have CROCODILES in our sewers?! Why didn't anybody tell me that?!" Hanks shouted as he began firing at the massive creature. The crocodile was huge, easily the length of three cars put together and as wide as a truck. He didn't know whether it was normal for a crocodile to be this big, but, as they said, size didn't matter.

The crocodile roared and growled as the pain shot through its back. In anger, it swung its tail towards Hanks. He dodged backwards just in time as the huge tail slammed against the walkway, causing a dent in the railing. The crocodile didn't give up either. It continued slamming its long tail against the railing at different intervals and at different spots, as if daring Hanks to dash across.

Which he did. Timing his runs properly, Hanks avoided all of the crocodile's attempts at knocking him down, and ran up to the higher platform, where he continued to rain bullets into the creature's hide.

"Ashton, come with me to the mess room, quick!" Susan yelled above the noise and tugged at Ashton's sleeve.

"Wha-? You're feeling hungry _now_?!" Ashton shouted back. He too, was trying to keep the crocodile's attention on them as Jason and Nicole tried to scurry away from its jaw.

"No, you idiot! I saw some things we could use, _come on_!"

Ashton let out an exasperated sigh, but hurried after Susan.

Below, the crocodile was making a beeline towards Jason and Nicole. It snapped its jaw open and close repeatedly, salivating furiously at the fresh meat that had wandered into its territory.

"Nicole, run to the farthest end and hide there." Jason instructed.

"What? What about you? You're not intending to take on that thing alone, are you?!"

"I'll figure something out, so just go!"

Jason pushed Nicole out of the way just in time, for the beast lunged forward and almost got both of them in its mouth. With adrenaline now surging through her body, Nicole ran as fast as her legs could carry her until she reached the farthest end. A door stood to her right, but it was locked when she tried to open it. They were stuck in the same room with that monster until they could figure a way to kill it. She ducked behind some machines, took out her pistol and held her breath.

_Just aim and shoot, aim and shoot..._

Her first shot surprised her with the recoil, nearly causing her to drop the gun. But she steadied her aim once more and pulled the trigger. As she continued firing, she gradually became used to the recoil until the weapon no longer jerked violently in her hand as she gripped it tightly.

Jason had dodged another lunge, and was now running across to the other end of the room while firing randomly into the crocodile's body. It was a good thing the room was spacious enough for him to keep looping around the crocodile, but his energy would only last for so long. He just hoped the rest managed to come up with something fast.

The seemingly small amount of blood he lost from the earlier encounter with that clawed woman began to take its toll. He began to feel dizzy and his breath became more rapid and deep. He struggled to keep up his pace when he saw Ashton and Susan reappearing from the walkway with something large and red in their hands.

The momentary lapse in concentration cost him dearly. He failed to duck the creature's tail as he ran behind it, and it sent him crashing into a locker. The dizziness in his head worsened as he fought to stop himself from blacking out.

Suddenly, there was a loud blast, followed by a yelp. The crocodile roared in pain as blood poured out from its left eye, causing it to thrash about. He raised his head and saw Nicole flat on her bottom, a large, smoking shotgun lying on the ground beside her. The distraction was enough, and Jason grunted as he pushed himself up and ran towards Nicole.

Hanks watched as the crocodile continued to thrash about when he heard someone calling his name. He turned to Ashton and Susan just in time to catch the loop of rope thrown at him.

"Get them out of there, and be ready to set that motherfucker on fire!" Ashton yelled. Both he and Susan had a large, red jerry can in their hands which Hanks guessed was filled with gasoline.

He set about typing the rope to the side of the railing, throwing the loose end over the edge and calling out to the two below. Jason was running towards Nicole, and the crocodile continued to roar and bellow away, smashing its tail against every single piece of machinery there was. They still had time.

Jason reached Nicole's position just as she took hold of the rope, the shotgun slung behind her alongside her bag.

"Where'd you find _that_?"

"Under the table in the corner. I have no idea what a shotgun's doing in a place like this, but at least it's going to help us out."

He followed after her, Hanks assisting them by pulling the rope up (not easy with their combined weight either). Once they were safely up, Ashton and Susan threw the jerry cans down. It bounced off the crocodile's head, angering it even further, and rolled off to the side. Then, in one coordinated shot, Ashton and Hanks shot at the two jerry cans.

Almost immediately, the ground ignited into a dazzling sea of flames, engulfing the crocodile in it. Its roars of pain became so loud that Nicole had to cover her ears to shut out the terrifying sound. They watched in silence as it thrashed about in the fire, before finding its way back into the large of container of water, where it disappeared under the surface.

Slowly, with nothing to fuel itself, the flames died down, and when the choking smoke had cleared, Ashton and Susan came up to meet them. They exchanged exhaustive looks of relief as they set the two emblems into the depression. The door clicked open, and they stepped through it into a flight of stairs.

Slowly trudging up the stairs, they stepped through another red-coloured steel door and entered a room that had several couches, a small television set on a table, a radio, and a miniature stove set up in the middle of the room. The policemen barricaded both doors shut before they all plopped down onto the couches, a satisfying sigh of comfort escaping their mouths in unison.

"A crocodile. A freaking crocodile..." Jason muttered to himself.

"Who knew, huh." Ashton replied.

"Well, one thing's for sure though." Nicole said. She had her head hung backwards and was staring at the ceiling.

Jason looked up from the couch. "And what's that?"

"I. _Hate_. Crocodiles."

Laughter filled the air as Ashton closed his eyes and drifted off into a deep sleep.

* * *

A/N:

Addtional info about the term 'Bruja'. Bruja is the Spanish term for Witch, and it centers around the story of 'The Weeping Woman'. Basically, a beautiful woman became spurred by a man that, at that time, originally came from a higher societal class but was sort of outcasted, and she herself belonged to the average or even a lower societal class. They had kids together (but did not get married), and it seemed fine until the man was given a chance to return to his societal class. However, he could not bring the woman and her kids along due to religious or political reasons, so he told her that if it weren't for the children, he would bring her along. Thus, on the night before he set sail, the woman drowned her children, and when she realized what she had done after, she went and told the man about it, and he simply left her there. This made her go mad, and she wandered the world crying. Some stories say she melded with a spirit and went around killing children and crying at the same time.

Another piece of additional info. The next chapter is going to be a side-story, portraying the survival attempts of other survivors in the city. Rest assured that each story is strictly one chapter, however I will most probably put several side stories in this fic alone. Hopefully it doesn't bother all you readers too much, as side stories sort of give me time to flesh out the next chapter in the main story.

Reviews are greatly appreciated!


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